{"id":305785,"date":"2019-08-12T06:06:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-11T20:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=305785"},"modified":"2019-08-12T06:06:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T20:06:11","slug":"guam-golfer-tops-toc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/guam-golfer-tops-toc\/","title":{"rendered":"Guam golfer tops TOC"},"content":{"rendered":"
Guam\u2019s Louie Sunga places the ball on the green during the second and final round of the 24th Governor\u2019s Tournament of Champions yesterday at the Laolao Bay Golf & Resort. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A six-year absence did not prevent Guam\u2019s Louie Sunga from having a triumphant return in the 24th Governor\u2019s Tournament of Champions held over the weekend at the Laolao Bay Golf & Resort.<\/p>\n

Sunga shot a 1-under par 71 in the first round last Saturday and hit a 1-over par 73 in yesterday\u2019s second and final round for his 144 and a six-stroke win over deposed champion Ryan Kim in the Championship Flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to be back,\u201d said Sunga, who topped the same flight in 2008 and 2009, and had his second back-to-back in 2011 and 2012 before missing the next six editions of the TOC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs usual and fortunately, every time I come here, I\u2019m almost always greeted by a nice playing condition. TOC and Laolao\u2019s course have been very kind to me,\u201d the Pacific Games veteran said. <\/p>\n

Before Mother Nature cooperated with Sunga and the more than 200 golfers that joined the weekend tournament, it\u2019s been raining on Saipan for nearly a week. With the inclement weather, participants were already bracing for the tough course and weather conditions so for good measure, Sunga played a couple of rounds with the local golfers before the TOC event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy that the weather was pretty good in the first round. Then in the second, the wind was a bit of a challenge, but other than that I also had a nice round,\u201d the 48-year-old golfer said.<\/p>\n

Sunga established a good lead in the first round after firing a 37 and 34 on the front and back nines for a five-shot advantage over Kim, whose two-year reign in the tournament ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got into my rhythm when I started the back nine, so that\u2019s why I was able to get a good lead,\u201d said Sunga.<\/p>\n

The Guam golfer birdied the first three holes on the back nine of the west course\u2014all par-4s\u2014the 429-yard No. 10, 390-yard No. 11, and 338-yard No. 12. Sunga had a near perfect game in the last nine if not for a bogey on the par-3, 202-yard No. 17. He saved par at No. 13, 14, 15, 16, and 18.<\/p>\n

For the second round, Sunga switched to the east course where he had pars in the first three holes to keep the upper hand. The five-time champion then had two bogeys in the next four holes, but made up for them with a birdie on the par-4, 305-yard No. 8 to end up with a 37. For his last nine holes, Sunga also finished strong, as his birdie on the par-5, 545-yard No. 18 gave him a 36.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kim tallied a 76 in the first round and 74 in the second for his two-day total of 150. The 2017 and 2018 champion was one shot ahead of third placer J.J. Atalig, who recorded a 77 and 74. Fen Chung Jin (77 and 76) and Franco Santos ( 80 and 77) rounded out the Top 5 of the Championship Flight of the tournament that aimed to raise funds for beautification projects on Saipan and for Super Typhoon Yutu recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

Results of other flights will be reported in Saipan Tribune\u2019s Tuesday edition.<\/p>\n

J.J. Atalig takes his time before putting during the second and final round of the 24th Governor\u2019s Tournament of Champions yesterday at the Laolao Bay Golf & Resort. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A six-year absence did not prevent Guam\u2019s Louie Sunga from having a triumphant return in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":305776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51,1057],"class_list":["post-305785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-guam","tag-toc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}