CARL Corpus bucked a final round struggle and carded a 74 to capture the Class A crown then partnered with Jolo Magcalayo to clinch the team championship in the Ciputra World Junior Golf Championship in Indonesia last weekend.
Corpus built enough cushion with a 73-73-72 stint in the first three rounds at the Damai Indah Golf and posted a one-stroke victory over Japanese Taiga Semikawa in the individual competition on a four-over 292 aggregate in the combined Class A-B sides.
Semikawa rallied with a 71 but fell short at 293 while Magcalayo skied to a 79 and wound up tied for sixth at 307.
But the Filipino golfers’ combined 292-307 outputs for a 599 netted them a huge 15-stroke triumph over the Indonesian-I pair of Jonathan Wijono and Emmanuel Suryadinata (298-316-614) while Glenn Yuwono and Kentraro Nanayama of Indonesia-3 ended up third at 615 on a 307-308.
Corpus and Magcalayo’s victories augured well for their buildup for the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in August where they are two of the nominated players of the National Golf Association of the Philippines.
Tipped to lead the girls’ SEA Games team are Yuka Saso and Harmie Constantino along with Sunshine Zhang.
Constantino, meanwhile, wound up joint eighth in the girls’ Class A with a 226 after a 75, 12 shots off winner Taglao Jeeravivitaporn of Thailand, who closed out with a 69 for a 214 and a two-stroke victory over Japanese Sara Ota, who sizzled with a 66 for a 216.
Constantino and Zhang (82-245) ended up fifth among 11 squads in girls’ team play with a 471 with Thailand-2 running away with the crown on a 434 total, five ahead of Japan.