Last-minute gamble pays off for Arevalo

SAN DIEGO, California—Eleventh-hour gambles usually don’t work in golf, but this one did—with flying colors—for Kristopher Arevalo.

Losing precision and yards off the tees in the first two rounds, Arevalo opted for an equipment change hours before teeing off for the final 18 holes on Thursday (Friday in Manila) and won the boys’ 13-14 division of the Callaway Junior World Golf Championship pulling away.

Two down after 36 holes, Arevalo and coach Carito Villaroman decided on installing a stiffer shaft for his driver in the final round. The result was accurate bombs that averaged in the vicinity of 280 yards and rewarded Arevalo with a closing four-under 66 and a 3-shot win at Morgan Run Resort Club.

“It was a gamble the kid was willing to make, because he was really losing yardage and sacrificing accuracy off the tees (in the first two rounds),” Villaroman, a three-time world jungolf champion, said.

“The thought of it (equipment change) alone was scary,” Villaroman said. “We just waited for the adhesives to dry off and then Kris practiced it (the driver) in the range 30 minutes before he teed off.”

Arevalo, who is a member of the Aguinaldo junior program under Rolly Romero, planed back to Manila Friday morning and didn’t join some of the other Philippine bets who went to the College Combine tournament near Palm Springs.

Arevalo tallied a 12-under 204 after rounds of 70-66-68, and it would have been an even more overpowering performance had he decided for the equipment change much earlier.

And it also wouldn’t have made his handlers sit on pins and needles the whole time.