Mendoza: CCC reenacts David’s conquest of Goliath

THE Cebu Country Club, whose exclusivity rivals that of Manila Golf Club’s inside Makati’s Forbes Park, has just rewritten history in the just-ended PAL Interclub Golf in Cebu City.

It was like seeing David slaying Goliath all over again.

Look, for emerging overall champion last Saturday, unfancied Cebu CC became the first team from a lower division to do it in 31 years, equaling Aguinaldo’s feat in 1988.

Playing in the second-division Founders in the four-bracket tournament behind the Championship, with Friendship and Sportswriters bringing up the rear, the Cebuanos dished off a champion’s poise right from the starting blocks.

Zooming mightily ahead in the Founders, CCC saw itself just a measly point overall behind defending champion Southwoods.

Suddenly, the Southwoods’ bid for a record “5-peat” got seriously threatened.

Then the giant upset loomed when CCC, emerging from a brilliant stint at difficult Mactan, found the saddle after Round Two as a beleaguered Southwoods crew got itself pushed to the ropes staring at a 4-point deficit.

Even Southwoods’ fellow Championship teams—Luisita, Del Monte and Tagaytay Highlands—got wary of a brewing tsunami aka CCC set to rearrange the final standings.

As Jay Jay Neri, the proud father of Pio Neri, put it: “After CCC played beyond expectations again in Mactan to keep its 4-point lead after Round 3, the team’s battle cry going to Cebu Country Club in Round 4 was, ‘Not in our house.’” Pio, a former Ateneo de Manila varsity golfer, helped anchor CCC’s final-day charge with his even-par 36 points that equaled his cousin Bayani Garcia’s output. Mark Dy hit 35 and skipper Marco Sarmiento 33.

So devastating was CCC’s last-round blitzkrieg that Harvey Sytiongsa’s 32 did not count in the squad’s massive Round 4 tally of 140 as against Southwoods’ 135 for Cebu’s final 9-point, 516-507 winning margin.

My felicitations go to the other CCC team members Mark Gonzalez, Nino Mendoza, JJ Alvarez, Eric Deen, Hugo Saurat and team manager Peter Po. Well done, mates. Cheers!

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