South dominates North in singles, reclaims crown

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Team South finished the way it started – in smashing fashion.

Fired up by its desire to reclaim the crown it lost in a final round fold-up last year, the Southerners stamped their class, racking all but three of the 12 singles matches to hammer out a 20-8 rout of Team North in The Duel 3 – North vs South at the Cebu Country Club here yesterday.

Needing just three victories and a draw, the Southerners overpowered the Northerners to capture the crown for the second time in three years.

“What can I say, the guys wanted the title back,” said non-playing South skipper Jerome Delariarte.

Jhonnel Ababa capped his flawless campaign in five matches with a 2-up victory over Randy Garalde in the seventh pairing although it came after Elmer Salvador had clinched the championship for South with a 1-up victory over Jun Rates for the needed four victories.

The Southerners moved unassailably ahead with an 11-5 lead after dominating the foursomes and fourball matches (5-3 and 6-2) in the first two days of the event sponsored by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournametns, Inc.

For a while, North appeared headed for a repeat of its stirring fightback from four points down last year as Angelo Que and Carl Santos-Ocampo hacked out 3&2 and 2&1 victories over Mhark Fernando and Clyde Mondilla, respectively.

But Jessie Balasabas delivered the first point for Team South with a 4&3 romp over James Ryan Lam then Elmer Saban and Marvin Dumandan followed suit with 4&3 and 1-up wins over Gerald Rosales and Benjie Magada, respectively, before Salvador foiled Rates on the final hole.

The South also leaned on the victories of Tony Lascuña, Jay Bayron and Charles Hong over Mars Pucay, 3&1, Edward Reyes, 4&3, and Michael Bibat, 5&4, respectively, before anchor Frankie Miñoza downed young gun Miguel Tabuena, 4&3, to cap South’s lopsided victory. Jun Bernis outplayed Casas, 4&3 in another encounter.

“They played better,” said North skipper Artemio Murakami.

“We’re always the underdogs. But we’ll try again next year,” said Que.

The soft-spoken Ababa emerged the South’s best performer as the former amateur standout, a three-leg winner on the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour, won all his matches, teaming up with Casas in a 2&1 win over Garalde and Magade in best-ball and with Charles Hong in a 5&3 romp over Santos-Ocampo and Edward Reyes in alternate-shot Wednesday.