Young aces hand southwoods 8-point lead

Manila Southwoods’ young guns came out firing yesterday and seized an eight-point lead over Srixon Forest Hills in the centerpiece Fil Championship Division of the 67th Fil-Am Invitational after shooting 131 points built around Ira Alido’s one-over-par 62 worth 35 at Baguio Country Club.

Yuto Katsuragawa, the 17-year-old Japanese who is Southwoods’ reigning club champion, fired 34 with Kristoffer Arevalo Ryan Corpus chipping in with 32 and 30, respectively, to announce their readiness to win a ninth title.

Southwoods was so in the zone that it threw away the 29 points of Aidric Chan.

Rupert Zaragosa, the country’s finest amateur, had 34 points to lead Forest Hills, even as Royal Northwoods took a two-point penalty to be 10 points off the pace.

“I could have gone lower if not for several muffed birdie chances,” Alido said.

JP De Claro added 33 while Jude Eustaquio and Luigi Guerrero fired 28 apiece to make up Forest Hills’ 123.

Northwoods got 34 from Richard Joson and was on-course to tying Forest Hills only for Richnell Albano to be slapped with a two-stroke penalty for holing out with a double-bogey—a no-no in Fil-Am play.

Carlo Villaroman shot 32 points and Luis Castro turned in 31. Albano submitted a 24 because of the infraction.

San Miguel-Northern Cement, the defending champion, struggled with 117 with the 29s of former pro Eddie Bagtas and Aniceto Mandanas pacing the squad. —MUSONG R. CASTILLO