Malbarosas advance to Samsung finals

The husband-and-wife tandem of Salvador and Neneng Malbarosa shared the spotlight with record-breaker Mario Parinas as they led the final batch of qualifiers from the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club leg of the Samsung Putting Challenge over the weekend.

Salvador, known as SP to friends, clinched a seniors slot while his wife Neneng made it as a ladies winner to catch the last tickets for the finals at the same Wack Wack club where SP is the general manager on Feb. 1.

Parinas ended the eliminations in style, submitting a scorecard dotted with one-putts which led him to a tournament best 11 strokes and runaway winner of the men’s category.

The Putting Challenge is part of a three-part series marking Samsung’s biggest involvement in the local golf scene. The co-sponsors are Taylor Made adidas, Hotshots Flame-Grilled Burgers, Gatorade, Fila, Custom Clubmakers and Greg Norman Shirts by Planet Sports.

The other qualifiers were Arman Enema (14), Jun Cusing (14) and Edsel Dagdagan (14) for the men’s side; Sherwin Andrada (14) and Jenz Tecson (16) in the jungolf category; Lucio Rodriguez (14) in seniors play and Nancy Ortiga (17) as the other ladies winner.

In the hole-in-one competition, there were only five qualifiers — Philip de Claro, Willy Sy, Margaret Tan, Paul Uy and Rey Javier.

While the Malbarosas and the other Wack Wack winners slug it out with the qualifiers from six other legs for a grand appliance package worth P75,000, the hole-in-one entries will dispute an even bigger prize which is a brand new car.

The hole-in-one contest will be on a designated hole featuring players who made aces during the elimination series that also visited the practice greens of Aguinaldo, Canlubang, Riviera Orchard, Cebu Country Club and Villamor.

Aside from the Putting Challenge, the Samsung series also has the Amateur Tour, the eliminations of which will end at Mt. Malarayat on Feb. 6-7 and the finals at Tagaytay Midlands in March and the National interscholastics.