La Salle bags Samsung interscholastic crown

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle-1, drawing superb games from Joey Huerva and Erick Gallardo, pooled a 306 to capture the overall championship in the 11th Samsung Interscholastic Golf Championships at Canlubang Golf and Country Club’s north course last Friday.

The Archers assembled a first-day output of 147 under the Modified Stableford system then closed out with a solid 159 to beat last year’s winner La Salle Green Hills, which had a 303 in high school play, for the overall title in the rain-shortened 36-hole tournament sponsored by Samsung.

Huerva strung up 50 and 56 (106) points while Gallardo had 50 and 53 (103) to likewise take the top two places in the individual competition of the premier division. Other scorers for La Salle in the five-to-play, three-to-count event were Fern Zaldariagga (47-39) and Gino Bunyi (41-50) while Allan Guy failed to count with 41 and 33.

Southville’s Phil Kyu Cho, however, won the overall individual title with a 108 from rounds of 53-55. On hand to award the trophies and prizes in various divisions was Dan Torres, AV Marketing & Communications manager of Samsung Electronics Philippines.

Gabe Villareal scored 46 and 47, Kirby Lachica had 47-41, Rocco Sumabat made 47-47, Moshe Baldo turned in 35-50 and Edsel Tan shot 44 and 54 as Ateneo-1 took the college division crown with a 291.

LSGH-1, behind JP De Claro’s 50-53. Miggy Yee’s 49-52 and A.R. Ramos’ 49-50, ran away with the high school crown with a 303 (148-155), outscoring De La Salle-Zobel, which assembled a 254 (128-126), while Xavier-1 took third place with a 241 (126-115).

Angelicum’s Aristeo Mata also shared the spotlight as he birdied the second playoff hole from six feet to edge De Claro for the individual crown in high school play.

Both finished with 103s with Mata churning out a 52-51 card in the event backed by the Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines, Airphil Express, the official airline, Microtel, Inquirer Golf, Glucos Care Herbal Tea, Custom Clubmakers, Omnisource International and Titleist and managed by Bluemansion Company.

LSGH also bagged the boys’ grade school plum with a 234 (123-111), beating Xavier-1, which had a 131, and Xavier-2, which scored a 125, while Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu topped the college/high school girls’ category with a 173 (80-93). La Salle pooled a 162 (76-86) then nipped Ateneo-1, which also had a 76-86, in the countback for runner-up honors.

La Salle-Zobel, behind Pauline del Rosario’s two 51s and Bernice Ilas’ 40-42, copped the grade school girls’ diadem with a 184 with Assumption settling for a 79.

Other individual winners were Del Rosario (grade school girls), LSGH’s Ryan Monsalve (grade school boys), St. Paul’s Marvi Monsalve (college/high school girls), Brent’s Meray Yamada (special division boys) and Assumption’s Annika Gozum (special division girls).