Baguio City– Megafiber rallied from nine points down to win by two strokes the premier Senior Fil Championship title of the 69th Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament at the Baguio Country Club.
Trailing, 342-351, Thursday, the 2011 champion scored enough to beat three-day leader Luisita Golf and Country Club by outscoring the latter, 109-98.
Rolly Viray topscored for Megafiber with 29, while Jose Marie Hechanova and Rene Unson shot 27s and a 26 was submitted by last man Abraham Rosal.
“We always thought that the real match is here at the BCC, anything can just happen here,” said Unson, who like Hechanova, were members of the 2011 winning Megafiber.
While Megafiber played just well enough, Luisita practically melted, with Chino Raymundo coming in with 29 points when he came in first for the defending champion.
But it was all downhill there as his teammates failed to produce at the tricky course. Jingy Tuazon went home with a 22, Raffy Garcia checked in with a 20 and Rodel Mangulabnan was just good for 21, giving Megafiber a two-point advantage with the last men yet to come – their own Eddie Bagtas and Megafiber's Rosal.
But Bagtas was also struggling and Rosal caught up with him on the 17th hole to draw even going to the last hole, Luisita's supposed last stand.
With Bagtas teeing off and making it to about 15 feet from the pin, Rosal's ball rolled to within 16 feet drawing applause from the small gallery of Megafiber, with the Luisita men acknowledging their defeat.
Both missed on their birdie putts, then twice putted for similar bogey and a similar 26 points.
“It is a tough course and we had a tough competition,” said Hechanova, who proved to be the team's steadiest player.
“There is no comparison with our win the last time since this is a tougher competition, Luisita is a very good team,” he added, not mentioning that Manila Southwoods, which again met misfortunes this year, is a very competitive squad, too.
“We dedicate this win to our boss, Albert Garcia who assembled this team for the tournament,” added Unson, adding that the Megafiber owner is currently in Sydney, Australia.
Southwoods came in third after a 108 for a 445 aggregate on the 31 of Raul Minoza, 28 of Theody Pascual, 25 of Bong Sison and 24 of Tommy Manotoc. Sang Jin Lee had a 21 and was counted out again.
Southwoods practically suffered a 12-point penalty when Sang signed a wrong card on day two when the Carmona, Cavite-based team could have been two down on Luisita.
Southwoods could have won the tournament by six points with 457, but instead was six down on the winner.
Southwoods consoled itself with Minoza bringing home the individual award in Group 1 after he registered a four day total of 130, with earlier rounds of 32, 37 and 30.
Dan Cruz closed with 32 points, while Edmund Yee and Chito Laureta had a pair of 30 and Benjie Sumulong chipped in 29 for 121 points as Luisita assembled a four day total of 458 and a 30-point win to successfully defend their Senior Am Championship title.
Camp John Hay closed out with a 116 points and 428 total to narrowly escape Summit Point Golf and Country Club by only two.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan and his CJH players of 70 years and older walked away with the Super Senior crown in a very dominating fashion.
