Brothers Paul and Dan Salvador opened with a solid 39 points but the defending low gross champions were standing on shaky grounds as a horde of challengers threatened their title-retention bid after the first half of action in the 15th Orchard Founders Cup member-guest golf tournament in Dasmarinas, Cavite.
The Salvadors combined for a best-ball score of 39 on Paul’s even-par 36 effort and Dan’s 34 to take a slim lead at the Player course with jungolf ace Princess Superal and John Solel Punzalan checking in with 37 like the pairs of Christine Popp-Andres Saldana and Aian Arcilla-Juan Ibazeta.
Presented by Coca-Cola, the tourney also got impressive scores at the Palmer layout with Justin Quiban and Sebastian Lorenzo shooting a gross 60 for a slim two-point lead over Emmanuel Ponce and Rhoneil Cousart, JayArt Tugade-Monchu Nolasco and TJ Benitez-Rodel Mangulabnan were three shots back at 57.
Alexander Ong and Raul Ilagan, meanwhile, set a very high bar for the low bet plum as they finished with 87 at Palmer to zoom ahead by 9 over Philip Santos and Carlo Ching. Jeremy Abano-Nivard Cron and Gualberto Lastrilla-Monsour del Rosario had similar 77s.
Over at the Player course, Miek Aquino and Mario Pangan shared the lead with Willy Tee Ten and Henson Tan at 49.
The two hole-in-one prizes, a 2012 Mercedes-Benz C180 Classic and Hyundai Tucson Theta II GLS 2WD A/T, remained untouched after the first four tries of the 800 players in the field.
The Orchard Founders Cup is backed by PLDT, Philippine Airlines, Banco de Oro Visa/CLG Acquiring, Mizuno, Sta. Lucia Realty, Kulinarya Global Corporation, CATS Motors/Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai Dasmariñas as major sponsors. Premium hole sponsors are Air21, Asiana Airlines, Security Bank Corporation, Orchard Property Marketing Corporation and The Turf Company.