GARY Sales of Villamor, Bong Sison of Manila Southwoods, and Maricel Amor of Royale Tagaytay captured the titles in their respective divisions after winning the finals matches yesterday in the 8th Philippine Golf Foundation National Tournament of Club Champions at Sta. Elena.
The 32-year-old Sales held off his bosom buddy Ricky delos Santos of Aguinaldo, pouncing on two big bogey miscues by the latter in the back nine to score a 2&1 decision for the men’s division crown of the tourney revived after two years by Inquirer Golf Magazine.
Sison didn’t give Oh Jie-sik of Orchard any chance after an early breakaway, cruising to a 6&4 win for the seniors division plum.
Amor completed a Cinderella run as she nipped Josephine Barredo of Villamor, 1 up, for the ladies division title of the tourney that featured entries from 24 golf clubs.
All three became the first winners from their respective clubs in the tourney that was also sponsored by Champion, Haier, Petron, GG&A Clubshares, Nike, Mizuno, TaylorMade and Sta. Lucia Land. Audi, Porsche, Lexus, Volvo and Jaguar were the automotive partners.
Alex Prieto of the sponsoring Philippine Golf Foundation and Sta. Elena president Rico Tantoco handed out prizes to the winners then announced that the ninth edition will be held in May next year.
It was Amor who worked hardest to win as she saved par on the last hole to pull through after Barredo holed a four-footer for bogey.
“I felt I had the momentum after my semis win and I got lucky again today,” said Amor who won on the 20th hole of her semis match against Jung Hee-kyung of Tagaytay Higlands on Friday.
Sison, the former administrator of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga, won four of the first seven holes and never had any problem after that.