Former two-time champions Cebu Country Club (CCC) floundered off the gates and stood in fifth place in the Championship division after scoring a measley 111 points Wednesday at the start of the 68th Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub Golf Tournament at the CCC greens in barangay Banilad.
Playing on their backyard was thought to be an advantage for CCC, but the Cebuanos failed to capitalize on that and were 18 points behind reigning champions Orchard, which opened with 129 markers.
CCC got 30 points from Harvey Sytiongsa, 29 from Kiyofumi Takahashi, 28 from skipper Montito Garcia and 24 from Carl Almario. Jovi Neri’s 22 did not count.
According to Almario, it was just “one of those days.”
“It really was just one of those days where nearly everybody played bad. Perhaps it was the pressure of everyone expecting us to play well because we’re home. But really, we can’t pinpoint it to just one thing. It was just one of those games when we could not find our rhythm,” said Almario.
CCC will try to get on track today at the Club Filipino de Cebu in Danao City which will host the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Playing today will be Neri, Bayani Garcia, Eric Deen, former pro Mark Dy and Marko Sarmiento.
AREVALO LEADS ORCHARD
Fifteen-year old sensation Kristoffer Arevalo, a former world junior champion had three birdies against a lone bogey to lead Orchard’s fiery charge with 38 points.
Raymond Sangil and JP de Claro each had 32 points while Ace Stehmeier added 27.
A surprise second was Wack Wack with 124 points behind Samuel Sy (33), Elphege Wong (31), Tommy Manotoc (30) and Garry Uy (30). Manila Southwoods was in third spot with 120 points while a points behind was Del Monte Golf Club.
Meanwhile in the Founders division, Club Filipino de Cebu opened with 119 points to stay in third place. Fernando Mondares and Jufil Sato had 31 apiece for Club Filipino while Baltaire Balanguan had 30 and Raymond Garcia added 27 points.
Villamor took the temporary lead with 121 points, just two ahead of Tagaytay Highlands (120).
The other Cebu team in the division, Alta Vista, is in 11th place with 106 points.
In the Sportswriters division, Mactan Golf is in fourth place with 93 points behind SoCal Red Hawk (107), Fil-Am Hawaii (100) and Camp John Hay (96).
Figme Dubai leads the Friendship division with an 83.