Del Monte’s Jovencio Lusterio Jr. swings on hole number 16 of the Mactan Island Golf Club. | Contributed
Cebu City, Philippines — The Cebu Country Club grabbed the overall lead in the Founders Division after they scored 121 in the second round of action in the 72nd PAL Interclub at the Mactan Island Golf Club on Thursday, March 7, 2019.
Del Monte tallied 121 in the Championship division on a demanding day at Mactan Island Golf Club, which opened an opportunity for CCC, playing in the lower division.
CCC took the overall lead after also compiling 121 for a 245 aggregate, two points ahead of the Bukidnon-based squad.
For the record, this feat was pulled off just once, when an Aguinaldo team composed of former Asian Games gold medalist Ramon Brobio, Bong Lopez and Thirdy Escano emerged victorious in the 1988 edition, which incidentally, was also here in Cebu, while playing in the Founders Division and eventually walloping Canlubang.
This development will now have CCC and Orchard, which is running second in the Founders with 231 points, joining the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Championship in the pairings in the third round today also at Mactan.
Southwoods got a level 36 from Aidric Chan and missed grabbing a share of the Championship lead after Jae Hyun-jung was penalized two points for holing out for double bogey.
The Carmona-based squad, seeking to win this event for the fifth straight year, was held down to 118 for 241.
Tagaytay Highlands, the surprise first round leader, stumbled to third spot after a measly second round 109 despite getting a tournament best 40 points from Jolo Magcalayo.
Luisita continued to bring up the rear of the compact Championship field after a 114, 11 points off the pace.
Noel Langamin accounted for 34, Joel Bernaldez 27 and Crispin Aparilla 23 to complete scoring for Del Monte, which threw away the 20 of Julius Langamin.
Masaichi Otake matched Jung’s 28 and the veteran Jun Jun Plana contributed 26 for Southwoods, which discarded the 25 of Sean Ramos.
Highland’s undoing was failing to get anyone to solidly back up Magcalayo, with the next best score being the 24 of Lisandro Opulencia. /bmjo