72 take part in Chamber golf tourney

A total of 36 pairs made up of 72 players took part in last Saturday’s Inaugural Saipan Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament at the Laolao Bay Golf Resort west course.

Of the participants in the two-person, best-ball competition, none shone brighter or used less shots to complete 18 holes than the pair of Kim Kyo Na and Zhang Hua Long.

Kim and Zhang topped the low net and low gross categories but only went home with the former because tournament rules only allow teams to win one award.

The duo thus won the low net double Peoria award after taming the greens and fairways with a net of 69, built around a gross of 63 (32-31) and a handicap of -6.

Awards banquet host Jay Santos and Vince Seman finished runner-up in the low net category, firing a 69.20 after their gross of 74 (36-38) was sliced by their 4.8 handicap.

P.J. Houn and Yasu Irinaka wound up third with a net of 69.6. The duo recorded a gross of 66 (33-33) and had a handicap of -3.6.

With Kim and Zheng no longer eligible to win in the low gross category, retired Superior Court presiding judge Edward Manibusan and former national golfer Nick Sablan took the plum after combining for a gross score of 64 (31-33).

They were followed by the tandem of Jeff Taylor and Adam Hardwicke with the pair of Ray San Nicolas and Ben Duenas settling for third place.

Taylor/Hardwicke and Nicolas/Duenas actually finished tied with identical gross scores of 66. The former, however, took runner-up honors on a scorecard tiebreak.

Champions in the low net and low gross divisions went home with $500 each, while runners-ups didn’t go empty handed with cash prizes of $300 (second place) and $200 (third place).

In the closest to the pin competition, Clarence Tenorio Jr. was without peer in hole No. 3, while Laolao Bay’s Tom McKenzie won hole No. 7. Hole No. 13 belonged to Ed Manglona.

In the longest drive competition, none was better than Federico Flores who drove the golf ball 280 yards out. Joun Park topped the most accurate drive in hole No. 17.

Zhan, for his part, was lucky as he can be as he won a Hard Rock Café leather jacket in a raffle participated in by golfers that wore HRC T-shirts in the golf course.

No player managed to cash in on any the four hole-in-one challenges in the Inaugural Saipan Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament. The hole-in-one prizes were 25,000 from Bank of Hawaii, $15,000 from Takagi & Associates, $5,000 from Century Insurance Company, Ltd., and a Yamaha R-6 Sports Bike from Joeten Motors.