South aces cap rout of North

Unrelenting until the end, Team South Friday polished off its rout of the North with a 9-3 victory in the singles matches to win The Duel 3, 20 matches to 8, at Cebu Country Club.

Jonel Ababa completed an undefeated stint, winning his fifth match, a 2-up victory over Randy Garalde, to highlight the Southerners’ dominance and reclaim the title they won in the tournament’s inaugural staging at Alabang in 2012.

Team South came into the singles with an 11-5 lead and needed to win just three matches and draw in one to prevail.

But the Southerners didn’t let up on the pedal as Jessie Balasabas, a rookie in this meet, posted the first point for the South with a 4-and-3 ripping of James Ryan Lam before Elmer Saban and Marvin Dumandan scored contrasting wins over Gerald Rosales and Benjie Magada, 4-and-3 and 1-up, respectively.

“The guys wanted to get back the title,” said non-playing South skipper Jerome Delariarte.

Those three victories actually made up for two defeats earlier, when Angelo Que scored a 3-and-2 win over Mark Fernando and Carl Santos-Ocampo nipped Clyde Mondilla, 2 and 1.

Antonio Lascuña, Jay Bayron and Charles Hong also triumphed over Mars Pucay, 3 and 1; Edward Reyes, 4 and 3 and Michael Bibat, 5 and 4, respectively.

Jun Bernis posted the third point for the North when he bested Cassius Casas, 4 and 3.

The veteran Frankie Miñoza downed young gun Miguel Tabuena, 4 and 3, to cap South’s lopsided victory.

The Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. event sponsored by International Container Terminal Services Inc. was backed by Nike Golf, Pacsports, Srixon, Sharp, FootJoy, Mizuno, Callaway and Custom Clubmakers with Balls, ABS-CBN Sports+Action and Inquirer Golf as media partners.