As luck would have it, I parked next to Atty. Ellie Espinosa, the Club Filipino de Cebu secretary, as I got to Cebu Country Club, during the final round of the PAL Interclub Men’s regular tournament on March 4, 2023.
“Back-to-back na?” he asked, just as I got out of the car.
“Back-to-back na na. Milagro na lang,” I told him, echoing what I sent him via private message a day earlier when Club Filipino took a 23-point lead going into the last round.
It was 3 p.m., and the first of the five Club Filipino players was yet to finish. After touching base with Charlie Davao and Lito Hibo at the media center, I found the always smiling Atty. Espinosa, a fellow SunStar Cebu columnist, at the CCC balcony.
“Dili pa siguro na safe ang 23 oi, basi mag-score diay sila’g tag 25, unya kita mag-20 lang,” the guy he was with told Atty. Ellie.
By sila, he meant Day 3 second placer Camp Evangelista, which was 23 down going into the final round.
But merely minutes later, I knew all questions of a back-to-back win were going to be erased as I watched Jovi Neri wryly laughed at himself after a pickup on Hole 18. Jovi, my go-to source for almost anything PAL-Interclub related, finished with 23 points, and his reaction told me the team probably knew they had it in the bag as early as the front nine.
Warren Bedell posted the best round at 27 points, Nilo Seno scored 26 and Day 1 leader Calvin Gothon posted 22. The team’s victory comes a week after Club Filipino’s senior team also won the same division in the Seniors Tournament, hence the back-to-back.
I had to leave early, but I’m sure Atty. Ellie was all smiles. After all, he told me that when he got on board Club Filipino, he decided to make sure the club would take its PAL Interclub stints seriously.
Day 3 No. 2 Camp Evangelista finished out of the top 3 after closing with 85 points, while Day 1 leader Davao City Golf Club was at fifth with 349.
Davao City Golf’s fall from the top spot reminds me of what my colleagues down South told me a few years back when I saw a similar story.
After the first day, the visiting golfers’ performances always take a dip because, by round 2, they’ve had their first round of sampling of the host city’s night life.
I guess that means the partners of the players of the South Cotabato Golf Club can sleep soundly that the boys never had the 19th hole in mind as it finished second after scoring 105 in the final day.
In the Friendship Division, Alta Vista Golf and Country Club won its second title this year after scoring 71 in the final day for 326, 27 ahead of second placer Liloan Golf. Richelieu Ho and Ronald Capito had 19 each, Anthony Jovil scored 17 and Erick Gica had 16. Earlier, AVGCC’s team in the Aviators Division erased CCC Team 2’s two-point overnight lead, thanks to the 32-point effort of Weiyu Gao.
To the best of my memory, I think this is the first time that one club bagged two titles in the same edition, making AVGCC’s feat a unique one.