Handog, Manhit gain control at Sherwood
Race Manhit fired a one-under-par 71 and Georgina Handog assembled a 73 on Monday as the duo moved within another good round of writing different scripts in their respective 11-14 divisions of the ICTSI Sherwood Hills Junior PGT Championship at the windswept layout in Trece Martirez, Cavite.
Seeing action for the first time after skipping the last two legs, the 12-year-old Manhit took a four-shot lead over Summit Point winner Vito Sarines, with Jose Luis Espinosa trailing another shot back and John Hay champion Javie Bautista firing a 77 to keep a mathematical chance of winning alive.
“I’m really happy with the way I played,” the Ateneo student Manhit said, even as Handog, a granddaughter of former Philippine junior golf president Gerry Handog, neared a breakthrough title after mixing three birdies with four bogeys in her most impressive performance to date.
Handog held off Aerin Chan, the prodigious daughter Jeff Chan, the former Gilas Pilipinas sniper. Aerin also trails by four shots despite an eagle-aided 77, with Summit Point winner Cailey Gonzales, Ronee Dungca and Kay Mauricio all bunched up after shooting 78s.
“My putts just kept dropping,” Handog said, even as Tristan Padilla sustained his hot form from chilly Baguio last week by shooting a 71 to keep the talented Shinichi Suzuki at bay in the centerpiece boys’ 15-18 bracket.
The 17-year-old Padilla, who like Suzuki plays out of the Manila Southwoods, had four birdies against three bogeys in showing that what he did at John Hay last week, where he also turned back Charles Serdenia, was not a flash-in-the-pan thing.
