Orchard edged Valley in a pair of thrilling, down-to-the-wire duels to capture two crowns while Alabang stamped its class in Class C in the fifth leg of the 2014 Champion Infinity WGAP Circuit at Orchard Golf and Country Club’s Palmer Course in Dasmariñas, Cavite recently.

Marissa Romano and Amy Dy fired 41 points apiece while Jean Magsino and Abby Lapid added 38 and 33, respectively, as Orchard pooled 153 points under the Modified Stabledford scoring system to nip Valley, which had a 152, and nail the Class A title in the event sponsored by Champion Infinity.

Sandra Nocum also shot a 41 for Valley, which drew 40 points from Joy Sevilla and 37 and 34 from Cielo Fregil and Sylvia Carpio, respectively. Aguinaldo, led by Lizbeth Alcantara’s 41 markers, placed third with a 149, nipping Tagaytay Highlands (148) by one and Alabang (147) and Southwoods (147) by two in what proved to be the most tightly-fought battle thus far in the circuit organized by Women’s Golf Association of the Phils. (WGAP).

Forest Hills made a 144, Canlubang turned in a 142, Sta. Elena had a 141 while Villamor struggled with a 111.

Orchard, thanks to Valley’s Mathilda Sun’s honesty, took the Class B honors with a 158, repulsing the Antipolo-based squad by two as Irene Tatsumi sizzled with 46 points and Maisa Catindig, Leanne Zuniega and Melissa Jimenez shot 39, 37 and 36, respectively.

Valley also recorded a 158 and would’ve foiled Orchard in the countback with a lower handicap. But Sun’s score in one of the holes was incorrectly encoded as birdie 3 instead of a bogey 5, thus deducting two points from her and the team’s overall score and making it a 156.

“The error was in encoding and Mathilda’s honesty was admirable,” said WGAP president Marissa Romano.

Princess Superal shot a three-over-par 73 Tuesday but still made it comfortably into the match play competition of the US Women’s Amateur Championship at the Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, New York Tuesday.

PRINCESS SUPERAL

Three straight bogeys from No. 12 prevented Superal from getting a higher seeding but the Filipina bet who just won the US Girls’ Junior championship remains confident heading to the knockout match on Wednesday.

Tied for eighth with a 70 after the first round, Superal also had a double bogey on No. 7 then hit a birdie on No. 11. But the top ICTSI-backed bet tumbled down again with those bogeys. She wound up with a two-day total of 143, three over par and shared 15th place with Sarah Burnham (69), Jiyoon Jang (71), Ember Schuldt (71), Portland Rosen (72) and Ashley Burke (72).

Bethany Wu, whom Superal toppled in the quarters en route to her Girls’victory in Portland last week, strung up a 69 and 68 to take low medal honors in the qualifiers that drew 153 entries with the top 64 advancing to the knockout stage.

At No. 15, Superal drew No. 50 Raegan Bremer in one of the matches in the lower bracket of the 64-player draw. A win would pit her against the winner in the Jang-Emma Talley duel.

While she expressed confidence of her chances this week, the 17-year-old Superal said it will boil down to putting in the knockout stages.

“I’m confident but at the same time I should really be focused on what I should do,” said Superal, who edged Mexican Marijosse Navarro on the 37th to become the first Filipino-born player to win the US Girls’ Junior crown.

MANILA BULLETIN 

Filipino duo Yuri Allado and Abe Rosal settled for second place after losing to the South African tandem of Jeanne Koegelenberg and Mark Roux in the final of the 8th Jack Nicklaus International Invitational (JNII) held recently at New Albany Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.

American legend Jack Nicklaus (center) poses with PH team members Yuri Allado and Abe Rosal.

Allado and Rosal’s early bogey on the par-3 second hole proved to be crucial in their campaign, as the South Africans birdied it with a tee shot to eight feet. Koegelenberg and Roux finished with a gross score of 54 over 15 holes.

Korea’s Doo Young Choi and Janghyun Yang settled for third place – the best finish for a Korean team – after beating Andyjaya Melawi and David Sumedap of Indonesia.

Team Philippines, however, took spotlight when Rosal shot the tournament’s first hole-in-one on 151 yards on No. 5. He went home with a Jack Nicklaus memorabilia.

“The experience was definitely one off the bucket list. The camaraderie developed with the other participants was unexpected, and the friendly atmosphere made it easy to cultivate new friendships” said Allado.

Teams from six countries competed in the tournament, which has raised over $2 million for charities around the globe since its inception in 2006.