By NIMROD NL QUIÑONES
Two teams share the lead after the first day of The View Invitational 2015 presented by MLanders Asia Management Services Inc. Thursday at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club in Pardo, Cebu City.
Former pro Mark Dy and his guest partner Andre Borromeo and the duo of Charlie Gaite and lawyer Nilo Seno both turned in opening rounds of 76 points.
Dy and Borromeo each fired two-under-par 38 points in the Modified Stableford Scoring System while Gaite had even-par 36 and Seno fired 40 points.
The second half of the field will start playing Friday in this four-day, 36-hole contest.
One point behind the co-leaders is the duo of Jufil Sato and Jerome Flores with 75 points. Sato fired 38 while Flores had 37 points.
The View Invitational is a member-guest tournament and players are allowed to use only three-fourths of their lowest handicap for the period of March to May 2015.
Brothers Marvin and Marco Mendoza are another point further back with 74. Marvin made 38 while Marco had 36.
Tied with 73 points apiece are the teams of Ferdinand Chua (40) and Thomas Castillo (33) and that of Jude Demiar (39) and Miguel Martinez (34).
No other team broke par yesterday with several players seeing action ahead of their partners, who are due this weekend yet.
Mario King (33) and Ed Franco (37) combined for 70 points while three teams made 69 apiece to round up the top ten. These were Alex Yeo (36) and Ed Benigay (33), Masahisa Kawakami (33) and Masaro Matsuo (36), and Jason Yu (30) and Badz del Prado (39).
Several prizes are at stake for a hole-in-one in this tournament that is mainly backed by Taiyo Yuden (Phils.) Inc.
The hole-in-one prizes are a Foton Thunder 4×2 pick-up, a Club Cart golf cart, an Atmospheric Water Generator from San Gabriel, and a trip ticket from Marist Royal Holidays Travel and Tours on Hole No. 15.
At stake on Hole No. 8 are a Yamaha golf cart and a roundtrip ticket to Korea from Air Busan.
The rest of the hole-in-one prizes are a Haojue motorcycle from Norkis and bet coupons from Pagcor, which are at stake on all five par-3 holes of the par-72 layout.
In case more than one player scores an ace, the prizes will be equally shared.
The club’s regular hole-in-one prize of Php 10,000 on all par-3 holes will also be at stake during the four-day, 36-hole event.
A skygo motorcycle from Nito’s International is also at stake for an eagle on all par-4 holes. In case there will be more than one winner, the prize will be shared while if there will be no winner, the motorcycle will be raffled off during the awards ceremony.
Cebu Mitsumi Inc., Empire Insurance, Kim Jun Chul of Apple Tree, Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell, Stradcom, JPark Resort, and San Miguel Corporation are the gold sponsors of the event.
Also supporting the tournament are Lady Dragon Enterprises, AD Gothong, Cebu Bionic Builders, Bryan Chona/Cemex, Dranix Distributors, Island Paints, Oh Jung Hwan, Oriental Tin Can Manufacturing Corp., Park Jong eun, Noel Sadava, Ryosuke Sasahara, Security Bank, Roberto Suson, and Yoo Byung Koo.
The rest of the backers are Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, Profood International, Shaldan Phils., Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, Moevenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu, Radisson Blu Hotel, and Shooters Arms and Manufacturing Corp.
