MANILA, Philippines - Caloy Coscolluela and partner Rupert Zaragosa escaped with a two-point win in the battle for the low gross title and barely missed pulling off a rare double victory when they yielded the net plum by just a point to Noel Gonzales and Yok Chin Ng in the 31st edition of the Mango Tee, the member-guest invitational golf tournament of the Alabang Country Club.
Zaragosa mastered the Alabang layout anew with an eight-birdie round and still had a gross seven-under 43 with a plus 2 handicap that was good enough to compensate for Coscolluela’s measly 24. That netted them the coveted low gross plum with a 136 total, winning by two over Jorge Gallent and Jun Jun Plana, who made a 70 for 134 in the six-day event co-presented by Petron and Smart.
Gonzales and Ng shared top honors with Coscolluela, the president of the national golf body who holed a bunker shot on the seventh hole for a crucial eagle that kept their pursuers at bay, and Zaragosa – whose total of 16 birdies for two days is believed to be the most made by any player in Mango Tee history – by taking the low net award with their rounds of 82 and 71 for a 155 aggregate.
Coscolluela could have also won the net plum for his team had he not missed a bogey putt from less than three feet on their last hole, the par-3 8th.
The two pairs showed up the full-field of 800 players that took part in another successful staging of the Mango Tee which had Pacific Links, Pepsi, Turf Co., Hungry Hippo, Hanes, Food Details, Mizuno, PacSports, Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet and LG Electronics and a hole-in-one package that included a Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Mitsubishi ASX, Ford Fiesta, carts from Texas Eagle, Yamaha, Mytron and Club Car, Piaggio APE Passenger and P100,000 worth of gas from Petron on No. 8.
The division winners were Ren Ilagan and Thomas Elazegui in Class A, Marilyn Reyes and Mario Badillo in Class B, Antonio Cailao and Jacinto Puno in Class C and Teofilo Eugenio and Willie Ng in Class D.
Alabang president Gill Balaguer and ACCI board awarded the trophies. The event was supported by hole sponsors Ayala Land Premiere, Alveo, Air 21, Bayer, City Service, CTBC Bank, EC Pay, EFV, Eight Arms, Entom, G&W Clubshares, GG&A Clubshares, GNC, Golfers Clubshares, Maritime Industries, Coco Sorbetero, Martin Lorenzo, Gold Nuggets, Safe Seas, Security Bank, Pemcor, Standard Insurance, Reiseling Boracay, Suarez & Sons, 357 Boracay, Outback and SignMedia.