Southwoods grabs 11-point PAL lead

DAVAO—Coming up with a balanced attack, Manila Southwoods on Wednesday amassed 136 points to zoom to an 11-point lead over Canlubang and get its “three-peat” bid in the PAL Interclub Men’s Championship off on the right foot at tough-as-nails Apo Golf here.

Carl Corpus shot a one-over-par 73 for 35 points and the Carmona-based crew got 34s from Jun Jun Plana and Jets Sajulga before the 33 of former junior world champion Kristoffer Arevalo counted as the last score.

“We got off to a good start and that is key,” non-playing skipper Thirdy Escano said. “The important thing now is to keep playing well and match their (pursuers’) efforts in the next two rounds.”

Escano, who threw away the 28 of Tom Kim, is referring to action that shifts at Rancho Palos Verdes for Thursday and Friday, with the well-manicured layout offering a totally different perspective on the field—a low-scoring one.

Jolo Magcalayo shot 36, Luis Castro fired 34 and Jakey Yulo contributed 29 for the Sugar Barons, who counted the 26 of JP De Claro. Cangolf discarded the 24 of Fernando Zaldarriaga.

“Palos (Verdes) doesn’t give you much of a chance to get point swings, because everyone can score there,” Escano said. “But we need to be able to play well.”

Luigi Yulo, the Canlubang owner, said that he was satisfied at the way his team opened up the 70th edition of what is regarded as the country’s unofficial team golf championship.

“No one really expects us to win this,” he said. “But who knows, we might be able to gain some ground in the next two days and be there (to win in the end).”

Rupert Zaragosa, regarded as the country’s finest amateur, plays for the Sugar Barons in the second round together with Carlo Villaroman, Marco Olives, Gido Mandanas and Bambam Santos.