by Rey Bancod
CEBU CITY – Japanese Yuto Katsuragawa eagled the par-5, 11th hole on his way to 37 points as defending champion Manila Southwoods nursed a one-point lead over darkhorse Tagaytay Highlands in the 72nd Philippine Airlines Interclub golf team championships Wednesday.
While most players struggled with tough pin placements at the Cebu Country Club, the 20-year-old Japanese found little use of his driver and scored the only sub-par round of the day.
Katsugarawa attacked the short 11th hole with a four wood and a five iron to within five feet for eagle. He also made two birdies against three missed green bogeys.
He used his driver only once as he alternated a four-wood and rescue club off the tee.
Kristoffer Arevalo returned with 32 points, but the rest of his Southwoods teammates floundered on opening day.
Josh Jorge tallied 29 while the 28 of either Chepe Dulay and Carl Corpus counted as Southwoods opened with 125 points, 15 points short of its target.
“I can’t really say that I’m disappointed and I can really complain because we are leading. I just hope that this will turn out to be our bad day for the week,” said Southwoods non-playing captain Thirdy Escano.
Tagaytay Highlands had a chance to overtake Southwoods, but Jolo Magcalayo picked up on the final hole after missing his second putt for bogey.
Magcalayo wound up with 33 points, the same score posted by Marty Ilagan. Jonas Magcalayo added 30 while Lisandro Opulencia counted with 28. Korean Young Jun Oh did not count with 22.
“We were actually preparing for the Founders division, but the addition of the Magcalayo brothers elevated us to the championship class. But we’re happy to contend,” said Highlands non-playing skipper RJ Rizada.
Del Monte rode on the 36 points of Romeo Jaraula to take third place with 122 while Luisita made it a four-horse race with 118 points.
Noel Langgamin and Mellurence Cubillo each had 30 and Rolando Bregente added 26 for Del Monte.
Paolo Wong led Luisita with 32 followed by Don Petil 31, Dan Emilio Cruz 29 and Rupert Zaragosa 26.
“We played really bad and yet we’re just seven behind even if our ace almost failed to count,” said non-playing skipper Jeric Hechanova, referring to Zaragosa, a many-time national champion who is set to turn pro.
In other divisions, CCC leads Founders with 124, Club Filipino de Cebu paces Aviator with 112 and Baguio Country Club is on top of Friendship with 75.
This year’s Interclub is sponsored by Radio Mindanao Network, Asian Air Safari, and Vanguard Radio Network. Also extending support are ABS-CBN Global Ltd. (The Filipino Channel), Rolls Royce, Primax Broadcasting Network, UM Broadcasting Network (Mindanao), Fox Sports, Cignal TV, GECAS, Boeing, Lufthansa Technik AG, Manila Standard, Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, Dusit Thani Manila, and Casino Filipino. Official hotel is Quest Hotel Conference Center Cebu.
