JOBIM Carlos won by two strokes with a closing 71, while Princess Superal ran away with a 12-shot victory with a bogey-free four-under 68 on Friday in the 21st W Express RVF Cup Amateur Golf Championship at Cangolf’s North Course in Laguna.
Carlos held off a late charging Justin Quiban, taking the win on a four-under 284 total in a follow-up to his national doubles win last December and national stroke play feat last month. He plays his last amateur tournament in the Interclub next week as spearhead of the Canlubang team before joining the pro tour next month.
Starting the day one stroke ahead, Carlos padded his lead to three with a 37 at the turn as Japan’s Yuto Katsuragawa fumbled with a 39. Quiban shot a 69 for a 286.
Katsuragawa failed to recover and closed out with a 36 for a 75 and dropped to third at 289 while first day leader Luis Castro matched par 72 to salvage fourth at 293. Carl Corpus fired a 71 for a 297, while Aidric Chan shot a 70 to tie Korea’s Tom Kim, who carded a 73, at 299.
Indonesia’s Kevin Akbar and Cebu’s Weiwei Gao turned in identical 74s to share eighth at 300 while Jelbert Gamolo and Carlo Villaroman ended up joint 10th at 301 after shooting 74s.
Superal won wire-to-wire as expected, shooting four birdies in windy condition for a 35-33 finish and a 285, well clear of Bernice Olivarez-Ilas, who had a 297 after a 73.
“I hit the ball well and there was no pressure, making it a lot easier to hole in the putts,” said the 19-year-old Superal, who stretched her amazing win run to seven, counting his four wins abroad to end the 2015 season and her triumphs in the Hong Kong Ladies Amateur Open and the Philippine Ladies Open last month.
Fil-Japanese Yuka Saso rallied with a 70 to tie Harmie Constantino, who hobbled with a 75, for third at 298.
Sam Martirez wound up fifth at 306 after a 76 and Sofia Legaspi placed sixth at 307 after a 71 followed by Mikha Fortuna (74-308), Kayla Nocum (75-309), Korean Hwang Min Jeong (78-311) and Indonesian Rivani Sihotang (79-317) in the tournament sponsored by W Express, conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines and held in honor of the late golf patron Rod Feliciano, backed by the MVP Sports Foundation, Smart, PLDT and Metro Pacific Investment Corp. and Cangolf, and held as part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour.