With dark clouds looming around the horizon, twenty-six players were so mindful of the weather because of SGC’s late tee time at 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon at Royal Ontario golf course. Darkness was the main issue here as the day was getting shorter surprisingly early currently. There was a notion of not finishing a round, but fortunately the seventh and the last group was concluding the round at the eighteenth hole while the sun was settling down at quarter to eight in the evening.
High winds and a cool seventeen degrees Celsius created a little havoc to a certain player who netted a remarkable net of 64. Ray Macapagal who enjoyed his brief stay in the Philippines earlier in the year and spent his winter hibernation down south of the border in Florida, captured the day prize in his only sixth game of the summer. With his splendid performance, Ray also seized Nassau corners back nine and the total net. Mind you, he was the only one who signed a net score card in the 60s. What was this thing with people coming back from all that holidays, going to form and restfully reeling in few prizes here & there?
Another player with a habit of winning every time he came back from a time off, Julio Rodriguez signing a gross score of 40, deservingly grabbed the Nassau front nine.
In the accuracy shot of the day department, Jess Velarde with a pitching wedge punch shot at the 116 yards par 3 eight hole got it so close that nobody could beat since starting earlier from the first foursome. Jojo Dizon impressive with a nice precise shot at the eleventh hole, won two of these in his last three starts. Not bad, eh?
Major Updates:
POY: There is a new sheriff in town. JC Montilla with a net of 70 took over the lead over rival Jimmy Manguerra’s net 75. JC now leads Jimmy by meager three strokes. These two are playing musical chairs since the fifteenth game. No one else is seriously close enough to challenge these two men with only four games to go.
MIP: JC Montilla could be possibly having this year as his year. Being a multiple winner so far this year, he is almost going away with this award. But wait. At his last start before last Sunday, Manny Marquez jumps from third to second replacing Mike Montilla who drops down to fourth place behind the ever-nonchalant Fred Halili. If I were JC, I’d be cognisant of Manny who is nipping at JC’s heels and is fast closing in with four games remaining. Who knows?
SPOY: Compared to other majors, this one is the tightest contest of them all. Why? Five players are within eight strokes of stealing the crown for himself. Bert Cerrudo still leads Seho Oh by a whisker of a stroke followed by Bingoy Peña six stroke behind the leader in third place, Mar DeVeyra in fourth place seven behind and Joey Cruz bringing up the rear in fifth tailing eight strokes. This is what competition is all about. Nice going seniors.