Ardina takes lone bronze as Zaragosa, Ikeda falter

JAKARTA – Dottie Ardina dodged the bad breaks that hounded her teammates, rallying with an even-par 72 then beating an Indonesian rival in a sudden death for the bronze in individual play at the close of the 26th SEA Games golf championship at the Jagowari Golf Club in Cimmangis, West Java yesterday.

It took Ardina’s final-round chase for the Philippines to salvage a medal as Rupert Zaragosa and Chihiro Ikeda, in strong contention after the penultimate round, blew their respective chances with final-day meltdowns.

Zaragosa, joint leader in the men’s individual play going into the final 18 holes, played with a bum stomach and tumbled all the way down to eighth with a fat 80.

Ikeda, running third through two rounds in the distaff side, struggled with a 79 and finished joint seventh with two Thai bets.

The Philippines lost the bronze in men’s team event to Malaysia via countback. Both finished the 72-hole play at 889 but the Filipinos had a worse final round of 226 as against the Malaysians’ 224.

Malaysia (150-443) also beat the Philippines (149-444) by one for third place in the women’s team event.

Phl delegation head Tommy Manotoc offered no excuses, saying the golf squads underachieved.

“The program must be reassessed to find out what’s wrong,” he said.

Rattanon Wanasric fired a two-under 70 to win the men’s individual title and lead the Thais to the team championship with a 214-865.

The Indonesians came in second at 215-874 then the Malaysians and the Filipinos at 888 with Jobim Carlos waging a last-day charge and missing the individual bronze by a stroke.

Carlos closed out with a 73-292, Art Arbole wound up with a 72-300 and Clyde Mondilla finished with an 81-319.

Ardina saved the Filipinos’ day as she fought back with a 72 for a 54-hole total of 222.

Counting Ikeda’s 77, the Pinays tallied a closing 149-444 card.

W. Tatiana of Indonesia rallied all the way from seventh to win the women’s individual championship at 69-217.

The Indonesians likewise won the team gold at 144-439, beating the Thais by two.