CEBU CITY – Manila Southwoods showed the depth of its talents on Friday, posting 127 points at Club Filipino de Cebu in the penultimate round of the 74th Philippine Amateur Men’s Interclub golf team championships.
Three players scored in the thirties, led by Masaichi Otake’s 34, as Southwoods pulled away with 401 points going into the final day at the Cebu Country Club on Saturday.
Otake, bouncing back from a pedestrian 29 on Friday, bucked three pickups with an eagle and four birdies to fuel Southwoods’ assault.
Ryan Monsalve and Shinichi Suzuki added 33 and 32, respectively. One of the 28 of Kristoffer Arevalo and Lanz William Uy counted.
Despite the 19-point lead over Eastridge, Southwoods captain Thirdy Escano was disappointed over his team’s lackluster score.
“Any score below 130 is unacceptable,” said Escano who gave his players a piece of his mind. “This is not the score that we trained hard for. It seemed the players were just contented beating their flight mates.”
Escano said he wanted his players to excel and become successful pros someday like Tom Kim and Yuto Katsuragawa.
“How can we achieve that if we score poorly?” he asked.
Setting aside his disappointment, Escano said he can now sleep soundly after staving off the initial challenge posed by Eastridge.
The Binangonan-based squad posted 120 points, drawing 31 from Tonton Asistio, the 30s from Timothy Clark Co and Ronel Tagaan, and 29 from Loyd Labrador.
On 382, Eastridge leads CCC by six points.
Carl Almario and Jacob Cajita each scored 34 points to lead CCC which matched Eastridge’s output. Bayani Garcia and Jufil Sato counted with 28 and 24, respectively.
Del Monte also struggled with 119 to bring its total to 359. Scoring for the team were Raul Minoza 31, Mark Ivan Parilla 30, Julius Langamin 30 and Enzo Fregil 28.
In the hotly-contested Founders division, the Orchard took a two-point lead over Riviera and Alabang after tallying 115 points.
Tae Won Kim and Young Sook Kim posted 31 and 30, respectively as the Orchard hiked its total to 340.
Riviera was led by Patrick Gene Tambalque who turned in 33 points while Alabang leaned on a pair of 29s from Justin Tambunting and Wan Soo Kim.
A tight battle also shaped up in the Aviator class with CCC Team 2 erecting a two-point lead over Alta Vista.
Marco Mendoza sparkled for CCC Team 2 with 38 points while Alta Vista drew 32 from Yap Gabriel Jr.
Club Filipino de Cebu leads the Sportswriters division with 288 points while Alta Vista Team 2 held sway in the Friendship with 255.
The annual event, held with the theme “Back to Ignite,” is supported by platinum sponsors ABS-CBN Global, Asian Journal, Airbus, and NUSTAR Resort and Casino.
Gold sponsors include Radio Mindanao Network, Mastercard, Memories FM 89.9 Cebu, University of Mindanao Broadcasting Network, PLDT/Smart, and Konsulta MD.
Joining the event as silver sponsors are Philippine National Bank (PNB), Biocostech, and VISA.
Minor sponsors are Bollore Logistics, Manila Standard, Tanduay Brands International, and Asia Brewery while donors are the Department of Tourism, Ogawa, Newport World Resorts, Rolls Royce, and Boeing.