Fiery Zaragosa, Coscolluela surge to Mango Tee lead

MANILA, Philippines—National team mainstay Rupert Zaragosa exploded with a six-under-par 66 and powered member partner Caloy Coscolluela to the low gross lead at the completion of Round 1 of the 31st edition of the Mango Tee, the invitational member-guest tournament of Alabang Country Club.

Noel Gonzales and bank executive Yok Chin Ng, meanwhile, emerged the team to beat in the low net race with an 82.

Playing with a plus-2 handicap, the pint-sized Zaragosa peppered the Alabang layout, which proved too short and easy for him, with 8 birdies—including five in a seven-hole stretch from No. 1—for a net 40 points while Coscolluela, the president of the National Golf Association of the Philippines, added a 38 in the battle for the Class A plum in the six-day event co-presented by Petron and Smart.

Gonzales and Ng scored 44 and 38, respectively, to lead all net scorers after the first three days of competition with Marilyn Reyes and Mario Badillo just a point behind.

Zaragosa and Coscolluela showed the way by two over JB Garcia and Kristoffer Arevalo and by three over the teams of Tommy Manotoc-Carlo Villaroman and Jorge Gallent-Jun Jun Plana.

Reyes and Badillo were up by three over Christine Naidoo and Marit Yuchengco and by nine over the Fisher Chua-Howard Ching partnership in Class B.

Gonzales and Ng paced Class C by nine points over Senen Matoto-Joseph Ong and Orlando Diomampo-Frederick Alegre. Ed Lacson and Dennis Gamab led Class D by three over Renato Reyes-Bert de Castro and Carlos Samonte-Renan Osero.

Spicing up the action in the last three days are rich hole-in-one packages: A Mitsubishi ASX, a Texas Eagle cart and P100,000 worth of gas from Petron for an ace on No. 8., a Ford Fiesta, Yamaha cart and Piaggio APE Passenger on No. 6, a Mercedes Benz C-Class and Club Car on No. 15 and Toyota FJ Cruiser, Yamaha cart and Mytron cart on No. 12.