SW-Masters touches off PAL Ladies title drive

BACOLOD—Defending champion Southwoods-Masters and Cebu Country Club start a virtual match play for the Philippine Airlines Ladies Interclub title Thursday, with the Carmona, Cavite-based bets looking to extend their unprecedented reign to five years.

With their respective team handicaps coming out too low, only Southwoods and CCC made it to the centerpiece Championship Division, making it a you-or-me duel in two of the next three days at Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club, formerly Marapara.

Abegail Arevalo, Sofia Chabon and the veteran Lora Roberto will form the solid core of SW-Masters, which rallied to win by a point over Lois Kaye Go and Cebu CC at Alta Vista in Cebu last year.

“It’s 50-50,” Southwoods playing captain Marie Claire Ong said of their chances before the tournament’s final practice round at the old layout that is expected to play a lot longer because of rains in the last three days.

“We still like our chances,” said the 16-year-old Go, who is also one of the favorites for the individual title. “The team has been practicing very hard. We want this.”

Junia Gabasa, who has a handicap index of 3.5, will be the chief backup of Go, who has an index of less than one.

Crystal Neri and Mary Kim Hong, who is Cebu CC’s playing captain, are the others expected to contribute to Cebu CC’s cache.

Arevalo and the rest of the Southwoods squad played a second practice round yesterday and reportedly scored well.

Teams can field eight players a day for two rounds, with the top six scores to count in the tournament sponsored by Mareco Broadcasting Network (Crossover), Travelife, Business Mirror, Airbus, Splash Philippines, Wealth Inc. and East Gate Publication.

Action in the Championship and Friendship divisions also fires off today, with the Sportswriters and Founders brackets playing their first round tomorrow. All four divisions will play their final rounds on Saturday.