Cebuana golfer Junia Louise Gabasa settled for second place as she couldn’t get past Harmie Constantino in the final round of the Philippine Junior Amateur Golf Championship at the Sherwood Hills Golf Club in Trece Martires, Cavite yesterday.
After getting off to a fast start in the tournament, leading after the first round, Gabasa slowly lost her touch, culminating in a sluggish 43 to start the fourth and final round. Although she bounced back with a 35 on the back nine, the hole was just too deep for her to climb out of as Constantino claimed the title with a 293.
Gabasa had a final round of 78 and an overall score of 300.
“My performance didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to but I did pretty well and learned a lot these past few days,” said the younger sister of top golfer Irina Gabasa. “ Overall, I enjoyed [the tournament] and I look forward to practice what I need to improve on in order to perform better.”
Constantino closed out with a 74 for her second straight crown in the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour sponsored by MVP Sports Foundation.
The national team mainstay, who won a tournament in the country’s ladies pro tour back in 2016, also dominated the WExpress RVF Cup in Canlubang last February.
Nicole Abelar limped home with a pair of 40s and ended up third at 304 while Sofia Legaspi finished a far fourth at 312 after a 77 and Laurea Duque ballooned to an 81 for a 317.
Over on the boys side, Luis Castro turned in his worst card of four-over 76, marred by two double-bogeys, but still posted an emphatic 15-stroke victory in the boys’ division with a 291 total, anchored by back-to-back 71s in the first two days that set the tone for his rout of the huge field.
Carl Corpus skied to an 80 but still grabbed the runner-up honors with a 306 as erstwhile second-running Sean Ramos shot himself in the foot with an 87 and slipped to joint third at 311 with Paolo Wong, who carded a 79.