What was projected to be a tight title fight turned out to be a runaway victory for Paolo Wong and Don Petil.
As former leaders Gab Manotoc and Lester Lagman never recovered from a shaky start, Wong and Petil proceeded to tally a two-over-par 70 and clinch the National Doubles Amateur Golf Championship overall title by five shots at Camp Aguinaldo Golf Club in Quezon City on Friday.
Though Wong and Petil produced just one birdie against three bogeys in the deciding two-ball, foursome format, they were hardly challenged as Manotoc and Lagman fumbled with two double bogeys and two bogeys in alternate format and yielded the lead with a 41 at the front.
Manotoc and Lagman had a 35 at the back and ended up with a 76 for a 279, way behind Wong and Petil’s 274 but equal to the output of the Ryan Monsalve-Lanz Uy tandem.
When the countback was applied, Monsalve and Uy retained their Group I title. —ROY LUARCA