You are hereWilly Libid Wins FAGA Masters
Willy Libid Wins FAGA Masters
For a brief moment, Willy Libid never thought that a major trophy was on the line. He was just thinking about the task at hand - that is to beat his opponent in the first round of the Match Play.
Not only did he handily beat Tonette David, he won the FAGA Masters by a single stroke over earstwhile leader Danny Velasquez, who struggled mightily with his driver until it was too late to salvage his game. Libid's net score of 201 in three outings bested the field composed of Velasquez (202), Samantha Edwards (204), Nick Salubayba (206) and Jeff Labrador (206).
The tall fescues did a lot of damage yesterday and the high winds only exacerbated the matter even for the best all-weather players. All four monster par-3's made every golfer cringe on their seat, even with a BMW 650Ci hole-in-one prize on the 172 yard #6 up for grabs.
The concurrent match play championships produced a lot of upsets. Joey Bote (4th alternate replacing Ian Loleng at #31 seed) upended #2 seed Noel Blumenau, who was quite incensed over the turn of events. #29 seed Jojo Tan manhandled #4 seed Cesar Echavez who was not able to capitalize on his 13 stroke handicap over his opponent.
#30 seed Sam Bangug defeated #3 Efraim Carballo in a nail-biter of a match; #27 Joel Torrecampo won over a frustrated Ricky Camacho (#6) who can't seem to find his groove, and #5 Velasquez lost a close one to #28 Bong Alorro. And finally #26 Benno Tan was just to much for #7 Eric Ciar.
In all, #2 to #7 seeds got wiped out in the first round.
Match play resumes at Beaver Brook with the round of 16 with intereting matches: George Javier going against 2008 POY Robert Carido. The Battle of Two Sams and Two Bongs - Sam Edwards vs Sam Bangug; and Bong Alorro vs. Bong Lerias. And a David vs Goliath in Serge Oliva vs. Jeff Labrador, a.k.a. JLAB. The Battle of the Cabalens is also featured: Jojo Tan vs. Al Dimalanta.
Even more interesting is the FAGA-Claret Jug to be contested at Beaver Brook for the FAGA Open & Senior Open championships. Very nice, indeed!
