Uy lifts PH to women’s title

SAN DIEGO, California—Daniela Uy closed out with a level 72 on Friday (Saturday in Manila) to salvage second place in the girls’ 15-17 division while powering the Philippines to the team title in the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines North here.

American Mariel Galdiano capped a dominant week with a final round 71, winning the event by seven shots over the  Filipino with a 279 total as the curtains fell on the biggest jungolfing event in the globe.

Princess Superal also shot a 72 and finished alone in sixth spot, 11 strokes behind Galdiano, a phenom who picked up the game when she was five and qualified for the 2011 United States Women’s Open before she was 13.

Uy, who rallied with a 71 in the third round, and Superal combined to win the girls’ team championship with a 576 tally. The country finished seventh place  when the team competition was introduced as a side event last year.

Thailand, starring Ornnichia Korsunthea and Banyapa Niphatsophon, placed second, seven shots back after matching the Filipinos’  final round 144. Japan ended up third, another stroke back, as Kana Nagai and Ayami Noguchi tallied 147.

The Filipinos earlier captured two individual championships through Kristopher Arevalo and Pauline Del Rosario in the boys’ and girls’ 13-14 divisions, respectively. Mikhaela Fortuna also placed second in the girls’ 11-12.

Defending champon Rico Hoey, the Fil-American who led the Philippines in snapping a 17-year Putra Cup drought last month at Sherwood Hills in Cavite, finished in a fourth place tie in the boys’ 15-17 after a 70.

Jose Mendez posted a two-stroke victory over Aussie Lucas Herbert in the premier event despite submitting a closing 73 at Torrey Pines South, in the process becoming the first Costa Rican to win the division that the great Tiger Woods won at least once in his career.

Raymart Tolentino and Rupert Zaragosa, the reigning national champion back home, wound up with 300 totals after shooting a 76 and 77, respectively, 17 shots behind Mendez.

“This is easily the best performance of any Philippine delegation that played here,” Carito Villaroman, the 1985-86 boys’ 15-17 champion, said. “We’ve won two divisions (in one year) in the past, but we never had so many Filipinos in the running in so many brackets.”

Fortuna led her division after two rounds only to falter with a closing two-over-par 75, while Aldric Chan finished tied for fourth in the boys’ 11-12, falling just four shots behind.

Jed Dy, the 7-8 champion last year, also tied for fourth in the boys’ 9-10. Alexander Yang of the United States won the division with a 181 tally, with Dy finishing six strokes behind. Bernice Olivares-Ilas, who won the girls’ 9-10 a year ago, finished tied for sixth in the 11-12 division won by Japan’s Miyabi Tezuka over Fortuna.