CCC gains 1-point lead in PAL golf

CEBU CITY, Philippines  â€“ The field in the 66th Philippine Airlines Interclub men’s golf tournament had a very rough opening day at the Mactan Island Golf Club yesterday.

Cebu Country Club, the defending champion, was the leader with 120 points and will head into today’s second round, on their home turf, with a one-point lead over Del Monte.

Ordinarily, 120 points isn’t enough to carry a team to the lead. But not at Mactan where the unpredictable greens and tight fairways had everybody cursing the par-72 military layout.

“They were hard to read and hard to judge the speed,” said Bayani Garcia of Cebu CC. Their 120 points is the lowest leading opening-day output in years.

The 27-year-old Garcia had 32 points, equivalent to four-over-par, together with teammates Lloyd Jefferson Go (32), Jovi Neri (30) and either Mark Dy or Carl Almario (26).

“Well, this is the Interclub,” said Garcia, who along with his teammates had hoped for a better round, and a bigger lead on opening day.

“Obviously, everybody had a tough time. But we will take the one-point lead whether we scored 140 or 120,” said Cebu CC general manager Jeric Hechanova.

“We did not get the lead that we wanted but we’re on top. The second and third rounds will be important,” added Hechanova.

Today’s round is set at the Cebu Country Club, which should be more generous to the players. The third round shifts back to Mactan, and then back to CCC for the final day.

Del Monte, where the finest pineapples are grown, squeezed 34 points from 15-year-old Jelbert Gamolo, 30 from Noel Langamin, 28 from Francis Morilla and 27 from Leonardo Lofranco. Jovencio Lusterio did not count with his 25.

Gamolo’s 34 proved to be the day’s best for the Championship division at Mactan. Over at the Cebu CC, the other divisions were played yesterday.

Alabang stood in third spot with its 117 points, courtesy of 18-year-old Andres Saldana and veteran Justin Quiban with 32 points each, Miguel Shah with 27 and Dax Garcia with 26. In fourth was Sta. Elena with 97 points. Senior match play champion Jingy Tuason had 31 points, followed by Yuri Allado’s 26, Richie Garcia’s 22 and Pepito Angeles’ 18.

In the Founders division, also at Mactan, Orchard led with 114 points though TJ Benitez (30), King Stehmeier (29), Allan Arcilla (28) and Ace Stehmeier (27).

Nine points behind was Southwoods which was led by Steve Yoon’s 31 points. In third was Apo with a 103 followed by Negros and Eagle Ridge at 103. Wack Wack, the defending champion, failed to break 100 with its 99 points.