IT'S IN the bag for Manila Southwoods.
Yuto Katsurugawa and Aidric Chan fired 39 points each as Southwoods practically sealed the title in the premier Fil-Championship division of the 69th Fil-Am Invitational with a 42 point lead going into the penultimate round today at the Camp John Hay golf course.
Carl Corpus and Aguri Iwasaki added 36 and 35 respectively as Southwoods assembled 149 and a three day aggregate of 415.
Katsuragawa’s eagle aided three performance could have been better after his ball landed some seven inch from the pin of the par four eighth hole.
“That was close,” said the International Global Studies student from Nihon University of Tokyo and Shizuoko. His score was later tied by Chan, who birdied the difficult nine after driving to the bunk, then blasted to within a putter for the birdie.
Royal Northwoods continue to hang on at second place with a three day total of 373 after carding in 138 led by Benguet golfing pride Luigi Paolo Wong who shot 36 points getting support from Nik Gatmaytan's 35 and the 34 and 33 coming from Carlo Villaroman and Raymund Sangil.
Forest Hills - Puma cling to third spot with 136 for a three day total of 373 led by Inigo Raymundo who fired 36 and drew support from the 35 each of Rupert Zaragosa and Jude Eustaquio respectively while Dan Cruz chipped in 30 points.
Meanwhile, the Am Championship team upped their lead to 51 points, breaking already last year’s 50 point margin, after tallying 119 points for 396 at the Baguio Country Club course.
Lanz Uy had a three over 64 for 33 points to lead his young Southwoods squads to 119 and 396 total over the three days.
Masaichi Otake came in with a 31, while Sean Ramos and Jeff Jung came in with 28 and 27, respectively, to count for Southwoods. Josh Jorge had a 23 and did not count.
Batangas Barako came in with 104 and 345 for second spot, while Philippine Navy had 101 and 332 which is just one up on Forest Hills Nicklaus, which assembled 103 points.
Razons of Guagua is a distant fifth with 91 and 309.
Southwoods golf manager Jerome Delariarte expressed satisfaction over the performance of the teams. “We expect them to shoot at least an even par (36) and what they did today at John Hay, is what we expected,” said the former Southwoods player who helped the team win six straight from 1997 to 2003 and the club’s second run from 2006 to 2009.
Delariarte said that their program is working quite well as the younger players - Otake, Ramos and Jorge – have experienced BCC finally.
“They are new additions to the team and we hope that they learn from this tournament,” added Delariarte, who will miss Chan and Corpus who will enroll in the United States next year for college. (Roderick Osis)