Cebu Country Club, Pueblo de Oro off to hot starts in  Champion Luzvimin Invitational golf

Cebu City, Philippines—The hosts Cebu Country Club (CCC) dominated during the early going of the 2019 Champion Luzvimin Invitational golf tournament, taking advantage of its local knowledge of the home layout to gather a 187 for a one-point edge over Pueblo de Oro in Cebu City on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, at the CCC greens in Banilad.

Mary Kim Hong fired 50 points under the Molave scoring system while Riko Nagai, Crystal Neri and Catrina Martinez backed her up with 48, 46 and 43 points, respectively, as the hosts and the equally hot-starting Pueblo de Oro ladies grabbed the spotlight from defending champion Del Monte and former titlist Manila Southwoods after 18 holes of the six-to-play, four-to-count format event.

Pamela Mariano sizzled with 53 points while Alethea Gaccion shot 50 points and Juliane Borlongan and Gladys Opitz added 42 and 41 points, respectively, for Pueblo de Oro, which stayed just within at 186 heading to the last two days of the annual championship sponsored by Champion and organized by the Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines.

Valley Golf, behind leading Class A individual scorer Mariel Tee’s 55 points, placed third with a 170 as last year’s winner Del Monte found the flat but tight layout not to its liking and groped for a 167 with Manila Southwoods settling for fifth with a 163 in the premier Diamond.

Leslie Icoy and Martina Miñoza shot 43 points each for Del Monte but last year’s Class B individual champion Sophia Abarcas could only add 41 points and Kiara Montebon chipped in 40 markers.

Southwoods, on the other hand, got 46 points from Laia Barro and 45 points from Loralie Roberto but their next two scorers could only churn out 36 points at best, two of which coming from Yeun Jea Baek, Claudine Garcia or Christine Naidoo.

Fernando Air Base made a 147 for sixth followed by Club Filipino (142), Rancho Palos Verdes (131), Sta. Elena (114), Eagle Ridge (109) and Victorias (88).

Tagaytay Highlands, with Gilda Medestomas shooting 41 points, showed the way in Emerald class with a 149, four points ahead of Camp Aguinaldo I and Forest Hills, which turned in identical 145s with Camp John Hay and Alabang putting in a pair of 140s.

Lorna Tabuena came away with 40 points while Myoung Hee Cheon scored 37 points as they powered Manila Golf to the Ruby division lead with a 138, also four points up on Villamor (134) with Orchard too far behind with a 119.

Bacolod set the pace in the Pearl class with Sharon Cho and Monina Gudaca leading the charge with identical 31 points, for a one-point lead over Camp Aguinaldo 2, led by Mencie Millionado’s 31 points, with Baguio, powered by Nora Sy’s 30 points, just within striking distance at 106.

Sharing the first round spotlight were individual leaders Myung Seon Park of Rancho Palos Verdes (43 points-Class B) and Club Filipino’s Arlene Villordon (39 points-Class C). /bmjo