By NIMROD NL QUIÑONES
Former pro Mark Dy and junior golf standout Weiwei Gao combined for 11-over-par 133 points to bag the overall lowest gross honors in the 34th Coral Invitational, which was held last week at the Cebu Country Club in Cebu City.
The overall team champion (based on net scores) went to the tandem of Blake Go and Matt Mendoza, who also proved that you can both play and display as they were also named as the best in uniform for the four-day, 36-hole event.
The Coral Invitational is the annual member-guest tournament of CCC and is always held on the week of the Sinulog festival.
Dy, a businessman who earned his card as a professional golfer a few years ago, has reverted back to amateur status. He opened the tournament with a five-over-par 31 points in the Stableford Scoring System and then made 34 on the second round.
Gao, 15 years old, fired one-under-par 37 points on the first day and then shot five-under-par 31 on the second round.
Go fired even-par 36 points on the first day while his partner Mendoza also carded the same score. The big lift came in the second round when Go torched the flat par-72 layout with a 13-under-par 49 points while Mendoza added 39 for a second round total of 88 points and a two-day aggregate of 160.
First runner-up honors went to the team of Martyn Bell (39-41) and Allan Tuck (36-40) with a total of 156 points.
Second runner-up was the duo of Jimmy Tee (37-39) and Harry Domingo (37-40) with 153. One point back was the team of Joy Anthony ‘Jojo’ Ong (41-42) and Roy Damole (35-34) with an aggregate of 152 points.
Joseph ‘Jojo’ Alquizola (41-37) and Police General Tom Bañas (37-36) finished as fourth runner-up with 151 points after edging the team of new CCC general manager Bruce Chiongbian (38-40) and Paulino ‘Boy’ Franco (38-35) in the countback. Chiongbian and Franco finished as fifth runner-up.
SENIORS’ DIVISION
The team of Mar Selma and Hermes Tangaan topped the seniors’ division with a two-day total of 148 points. Selma had rounds of 34 and 45 while Tangaan made 36 and 33.
First runner-up honors for the category for teams whose total age is not less than 120 years went to Vicente Sy (37-38) and Ray Jacinto (36-35) with 146 points.
Second runner-up was the team of former collegiate basketball stars of the University of San Carlos Vicente Colina (39-31) and Vicente Go (33-39) with 142 points.
INDIVIDUAL AND DAY WINNERS
Carlos Garcia bagged the individual lowest net honors with a two-day total of 87 points on rounds of 44 and 43.
Many-time club champion Eric Deen fired rounds of 36 and 34 for a total of two-over-par 70 points to take the lowest gross plum.
The best team score for the first day went to Jufil Sato (42) and Andot Mondares (39) with 81 points.
The best senior team for the first day was that of Dr. Lor Alaan (33) and Edwin Espina (40) with 73 points.
The best score of the second day went to Henry Dy (46) and Jose Maria ‘Tetu’ Santos (38) with 84 points while the best senior team was that of lawyer Joseph Yukayguan (47) and Manuel ‘Jun’ Zosa (33) with 80 points.
Eagle achievers of the tournament were Edwin Espina on January 15 on hole No. 16, and Andrew Ahn and Baltaire Balangauan on hole No. 7 last January 16.
