Gregory Foo rules PH Am Open by 2 shots

Photo by Manny Marcelo

CANLUBANG, Laguna—Gregory Foo played his worst round but the Fil-Singaporean held on to capture the Philippine Amateur Open golf championship Sunday by two shots over Jobim Carlos at Cangolf’s North course here.

With steady morning rains turning the par-72 course longer and soft, Foo went birdie-less and lost his six-stroke overnight advantage before settling down to wind up with a seven-over-par 79 and a four-day 287 tally.

Carlos, who fought Foo toe-to-toe in the first two rounds only to sputter with a 75 on Saturday, returned a second straight 75 to finish second, with Clyde Mondilla settling for third another stroke behind at 291 after a 76.

Mondilla, a former champion who, like Carlos, started the day six shots off the lead, pulled level with the eventual champion after Foo, who had earlier rounds of 70-69-69, double-bogeyed the par-3 11th.

But the standout from Del Monte, who three-putted the 11th, fell out of the lead with a bogey on the 12th before taking a horrendous 7 on the par-4 13th hole, where he needed three shots to get out of a fairway bunker.

“I just stayed patient out there and tried to not let myself feel down after shooting a 40 (on the front nine),” Foo, whose Filipino mother hails from Quezon City, told the Inquirer.

“The fact that Clyde and Jobim got unlucky helped me win,” added Foo, who picked up his first major victory.

Delayed start
Foo admitted to having difficulty getting to settle down after the rains delayed the start by almost an hour to around 10:30 in the morning.

Carlos and Mondilla pounced on the chance only to lose steam in the end.

Carlos, the 19-year-old ICTSI scholar in the United States, birdied the par-5 17th to nip ICTSI-Canlubang teammate Mondilla for second.

“Something went on a little bit of everything in my game,” Carlos said. “My round was very much like yesterday. I just couldn’t get it going, though I did not play that bad at all.”

Lovelyn Guioguio closed out with a 71 and rallied from two strokes down to win the women’s side of the tournament presented by Globe Telecom, Pancake House and Airphil Express.

Guioguio totalled 219 for 54 holes, winning over Andie Unson, who fired a 72, by six strokes.

Both Foo and Guioguio won two round-trip tickets to Singapore and Blackberry phones from Globe.

Foo, who won the Singaporean Junior Am championship last year on his last year of eligibility in the event, said he is so proud to win the national title of his mother’s country.

The 18-year-old added that he would be finding less time for golf next month to serve his mandatory 22-month stint with the Singaporean Army.

“It was really tough for me out there on the back nine,” Mondilla, the 2010 winner, said in Filipino. “I had all the bad breaks.”

Going to the 13th tee trailing Foo by one, Mondilla found the fairway bunker on his drive. What was supposed to be a routine long blast to the green with a 6-iron started his downfall as his ball ended up in a buried lie after failing to clear the lip.

Impossible bunker lie
From that impossible lie, Mondilla needed two more shots to get out.

Jerome Ng, another Singaporean, fired a 73 for 291 with Korean expat Choi Jae-seung shooting a 76 for 293.

The tournament was supported by Tanduay Distillers, Inc. as major sponsor and supported by Club Car, Pacsports, Golf Depot, Autohub and Callaway with Acacia Hotel as official hotel and Titleist as official ball.

The final scores:
(Filipino unless stated)
MEN: 287—G. Foo (Sin) 70-69-69-79; 289—J. Carlos 70-69-75-75; 290—C. Mondilla 70-74-70-76; 291—J. Ng (Sin) 73-71-74-73; 293—CJ-Seung (Kor) 72-71-74-76; 296—JR Gonzales 76-72-70-78, J. Quiban 77-75-70-74; 297—M. Alejandro 73-72-71-81, G. Gandiongco 73-75-74-75, R. Zaragosa 79-68-73-77; 300—P Cho (Kor) 74-77-73-76, H. Jung (Kor) 76-73-73-78.
WOMEN: 219—L. Guioguio 72-76-71; 225—A. Unson 75-78-72; 226—P. Superal 75-76-75; 227—S. Baraquiel 76-77-74; 228—S. Ababa 75-72-81; 233—J. Agojo 78-73-82; 234—D. Ardina 74-76-84; 236—C. Legaspi 80-76-80; 238—J. Vasandani (Mal) 81-78-79, A. Sabater 79-84-75.