By NIMROD NL QUIÑONES
The tandem of Douglas Gacasan and Armand Guangko, Jr. coasted to an opening round of 80 points to set the pace in the 33rd Coral Invitational, which teed off Wednesday at the Cebu Country Club.
Gacasan fired 40 points in the Modified Stableford Scoring System after shooting gross ten-over-par 82 in the damp course. His partner also made 40.
The scoring format awards six points for a double-eagle, five for an ace, four for eagle, three for birdie, two for par, and one for bogey.
The downpour and the picket staged by some caddies outside of the club could not stop the staging of the annual signature tournament of CCC.
Running second is the team of Peter Po II and Arnel Kwan with a combined effort of 76points. Po shot 42 points while Kwan added 34.
The tournament format calls for a club member to be paired with a guest. The team with the highest aggregate after two rounds within the four-day period of the event will be declared overall champion.
At third is the duo of Charles Ong (38) and Archie Villa (36) with 74 points. They are followed by Evans Tumaliwan (37) and Baltaire Balangauan (36) with 73 points. Rounding up the top five is the team of Alfonso Martinez (32) and Jerome Flores (40) with even-par 72 points.
Four teams are tied with 71 points each. These are the duos of Alvin Lim (34) and Ted Carranza (37), Noel Ybañez (36) and Generoso Cerbo (35), Raymond Garcia (36) and Eddie Lopez (35), and Jojo Alquizola (35) and Cliff Empiso (36).
Three more teams are one point further back. These are the tandems of Antonio Canoy (34) and Chito Villareal (36), Bobit Avila (34) and Sim Guinocor (36), and Jufil Sato (38) and Fernando Mondares (32).
Highlighting the first day of this year’s event was the ace scored by Niñi Jose ‘Jojo’ Tiongko on hole No. 5.
The second round of the tournament will be played Thursday with a Calcutta set in the evening.
The Coral Invitational runs until Saturday.
