Jolo Magcalayo all but wrapped up the men’s crown with a second straight 71, hiking his lead to nine over Masaichi Otake even as Junia Gabasa wrested control in the women’s side despite a 75 in the third round of the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Golf Championship at Cangolf’s North course in Laguna yesterday.
As elder brother Jonas bowed out with bogeys on the first three holes, Jolo rebounded from a shaky start with a slew of birdies, finishing with five that negated a four-bogey mishap, including on the last hole that hardly put a dent to his title drive in the 72-hole championship sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation and held in honor of the late NGAP president and golf patron Rod V. Feliciano.
He bogeyed Nos. 2 and 3 but birdied the sixth and eighth holes, dropped another stroke on No.12 but birdied Nos. 14, 16 and 17 before yielding another stroke on the closing par-4 hole.
With a nine-under 207 aggregate, the 17-year-old Jolo went unassailably ahead of the pack with Otake moving to solo second at 216 after a 69 as erstwhile second-running Jonas groped for a 79 and tumbled to eighth at 222.
After being crowded by Eagle Ace Superal and Sofia Chabon in the first two rounds, Gabasa finally shook off her challengers, bucking a woeful backside 40 for a 75 and a 222 as Chabon reeled back with a 38-41 for a 79 and fell to fourth at 226.
Young Rianne Malixi and Sofia Legaspi took over at joint second with 224s with the former stringing a 36-37 for a 73 and the latter bouncing back from an opening 39 with a 35 for a 74.
