Yoyong Velez (fourth from left) celebrates with the rest of the Del Monte team after formalizing title romp. —PAL PHOTO
CAGAYAN DE ORO—Yoyong Velez is a lawyer by profession. And in his spare time, he assembles homegrown talents for and then leads Del Monte teams to Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub glory.
Six years after starting to field strong Seniors teams that he has spearheaded each time, Velez and Del Monte finally pulled it out and bagged that elusive Championship division title by bamboozling a compact yet very talented field that was left battling for the crumbs after the third day.
“This is very sweet,” Velez told the Inquirer after some celebration near the 18th green of Pueblo de Oro. “This is sweet because we have waited quite a long time for this and because we always play with a homegrown team.
READ: Del Monte leads by 18, leaves seniors field gasping
“We have never recruited players from the outside,” he said. “So you can only imagine how proud I am of this team.”
Cangolf salvages second
Velez came out to spearhead the mop-up job for Del Monte, which started the final round with an 18-point lead. He shared team honors with Ondoy Mondilla with five-over-par 77s for 49s that made up the bulk of a closing 141 for 601 overall and a 17-point win.
“The players simply delivered. All of them did,” Velez went on as Raul Miñoza’s 43 counted. “We made the most out of the Interclub coming to these parts.“Our long wait has finally ended,” Velez added.
READ: Sizzling home cooking ushers Del Monte to 14-point lead
Canlubang nosed out Manila Southwoods in the hotly contested battle for second spot by erasing a one-stroke deficit heading into the final two holes. The Sugar Barons tallied 142 like Southwoods and kept an overnight three-point edge to finish second for the second straight year.
Damas Wong fired 50 points, Abe Rosal accounted for 48 and Abe Avena tallied 44 to make up the Canlubang score, even as Manfred Guangko paced Southwoods with 51 points with Joseph Tambunting shooting 46 and Theody Pascual firing 45 for its 142 and 439.
It was still the best finish for Southwoods in many years campaigning in the Championship division.
Luisita was doomed to its worst finish here in years, fourth and last, after accounting for just 135 for 437.
Ferdie Barbosa shot 52 points, Dan Cruz struggled to post 44 and the injured Marty Ilagan contributed 39 for the Luisitans, who won in come-from-behind style over Canlubang in Cebu last year.