The Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc., acting on President Duterte’s directive raising the Code Alert System for COVID-19 to Code Red Sublevel 2 and placing the National Capital Region under “community quarantine” Thursday night, yesterday called off the final round of its 72-hole Qualifying School for local and foreign bidders at Splendido Taal Golf Club.
“President Duterte last night (Thursday) raised the Code Alert System for the coronavirus disease to Code Red Sublevel 2. With the safety and interest of the players and staff our utmost concern, the PGT Tournament Committee has decided to shorten the PGT Qualifying Tournament to three days,” the PGTI said in a statement.
It added that the qualifiers for the 11th season of the country’s premier circuit will be determined by the scores after three rounds with Lloyd Go and Arnold Villacencio sharing top honors in the local elims with identical 213 outputs and CJ Lee of the US topping the foreign side with a similar 213 total after 54 holes of play.
The 30-day community quarantine will start midnight of March 15, 2020, along with stringent distancing measures to help fight off the spread of the virus.
Domestic travel by land, sea and air into Metro Manila will also be suspended from March 15 to April 14, including all sorts of mass gatherings.
The top 30 in the local elims all gain Category 6 status in this year’s PGT starting fields, including Anthony Fernando (217), Tonton Asistio, Robert Pactolerin, Bonifacio Salahog, Dino Villanueva, who all pooled 218s, Belem Arancon, Cookie La’O, Ebarra Quiacho and Sean Talmadge, who all assembled 221s, Rey Pagunsan (222), Raymund Gonzales and Kuresh Samanodi, both with 223s, Francis Morilla (224), Rodrigo Cuello (225);
Arnel Enema (226), amateur Luis Dacudao and Paul Miñoza, who scored identical 227s, Orlan Sumcad (228), Rolando Marabe Jr. and Joseph Suarez, both with 229s, Enrico Gallardo and Joeleo Torrecampo, with similar 230s, Johnel Bulawit (231), Kris Etter, Joseph Labajo and Allan Remata, with identical 232s.
Jun Bernis, Erwin Madrileño, Mharts Rivera and Gabo Santiago, who scored 233s, are fighting for the last slot.
Joining Lee in Category 7 of the tour proper are Aussie William Bruyeres, Japanese Gen Nagai and South Africa’s Romano Saincic, who all carded 218s, amateur Anthony Gutierez of the US (222), Korean Hwang Myung Chal and Argentine Emilio Parodi, who both had 228, Park Jun Sung of Korea (229), American Nathan Ouimette (230), Korean Kim Chang Hoi (231), Greg Gonzalez of the US (234) and Venezuela’s Rafael Parra (235).
The COVID-19 outbreak likewise forced the PGTI to suspend its scheduled tournaments in the PGT, PGT Asia and Ladies PGT this month and early April.