SEA Games: PHL lady golfers ready to defend crown

Jakarta, Indonesia—The Philippine lady golfers will start their own quest for a title-retention bid against contenders Thailand and Malaysia as the competition for the distaff side in the 26th Southeast Asian Games begins Tuesday at the Jagorawi Golf and Country Club’s New Course. The Philippines, with national coach Bong Lopez at the helm, won in Laos with the ICTSI trio of Chihiro Ikeda, Dottie Ardina and Mia Piccio on board. This week, Ikeda and Ardina are back to defend with Andrea Unson. The Thai squad, meanwhile, will be leaning on the vast international experience of Pinrath Loomboonruang, who actually nipped Ardina for the individual title in the recent Santi Cup of the Southeast Asia Golf Team Championship, or the Putra Cup. Malaysia will have to rely on two stars on Aretha Pan and Kelly Tan. Pan is the reigning titlist in the Malaysia Amateur Open after she beat Ardina months ago while Tan has been priming herself to join the professional ranks next year. “We expect them to breathe down our necks. They are capable and dangerous foes. But the girls are ready to take on all rivals," said Lopez of his wards Ikeda, the individual gold winner two years ago, Ardina and Unson who did some light practice Monday. In the first round of men’s competition, Indonesia displayed extensive course knowledge as it assembled a 214 to grab an early four-shot lead against Thailand while the Philippines pooled in a 223 for fourth place, one behind Malaysia. Indon George G. provided the spark as he scored on a two-under-par 70. After limping a bit with a 37 at the back side where he started, he dropped in three birdies on Nos. 1, 2 and 9 at the front nine to wound up with a 33 for that 70. Also buoyed up with the cheers of the handful of local fans that showed up at Jagorawi, Ian Andrew and Rinaldi Adiyandono each supported George G. with a 72 for Indonesia’s tournament-leading 214. Filipino pint-sized golfer Rupert Zaragosa played steadily with an even 72 despite the New Course’s narrow fairways, fast greens and tall roughs for the PHL, which finished third in the 2009 Laos SEA Games in Vientiane. Jobim Carlos, who was expected to score heavily, struggled in the early holes, making a double bogey on the 13th and bogeys on 14th and 16th. He birdied the 17th then added three more on three of five holes at the turn that gave him a 74. Art Arbole was actually on his way to a good round until he got busted with a horrible 9 on the par-5 eighth hole. His drive sliced to the right and went out-of-bounds then on his third shot, he missed on the ball completely on his chip but was still assessed as a stroke that added to his woes. Still Arbole made it to the scoring column format (four-to-play, three-to-count) with a 77. “We’re in good position at the moment, although we could have been tied with Thailand if not for Arbole’s mishap on No. 8. Still, we are in contention for the team gold since there are three playing days to go," said coach Carito Villaroman. Thailand had a 218 on the 70 of Natipong Srithong, 73 of Poom Saksansin and 75 of Chanachock D. Malaysia was led by Low Khai Jei’s 70 followed by Kenneth de Silva’s 73 and Muhammad Arie’s 79. - OMG, GMA News