Arcilla, Pague earn mix results to reach semis

DURABLE Johnny Arcilla rolled to another lop sided win but second seed Jose Maria Pague needed to pounce on Ronard Joven’s cramps to barge into the semifinal round of the men’s Open singles of the PPS-PEPP Malita Open in Davao Occidental yesterday.

The top-ranked Arcilla smothered Alexis Acabo, 6-1, 6-3, after shutting down Carlos Santiago, 6-0, 6-0, and whipping Rodolfo Barquin, 6-1, 6-0, for a semis clash with John Bryan Otico, who sustained his giant-killing spree by ousting No. 4 Vicente Anasta, 7-5, 6-4, at the Malita courts.

Otico earlier bundled out fifth-ranked Eric Jed Olivarez, 6-2, 6-4, following a walkover win over Christian Angus in the first round and a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Eric Jay Tangub.

The De la Salle-Zobel product, however, will need a lot of everything to get past the veteran Arcilla and earn a shot at the top purse of P80,000 in the event hosted by Mayor Bradly Bautista and held under the PPS-PEPP program headed by Palawan Pawnshop president/Bobby Castro.

Coming off a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Noel Salupado in the quarters, Pague yielded in a frenzied first-set duel with Joven but fought back in the next to hack out a 6-7(6), 6-0, 2-1(ret.) win as the latter cramped out.

But Pague will still have to overcome No. 3 Charles Kinaadman, who slammed Jeleardo Amazona, 6-2, 6-2, in the Last 8 phase after easing past Nicolas Gutierrez, 6-1, 6-0, and thwarting Jude Padao, 6-3, 6-4, in the other half of the 64-player draw of the week-long tournament held in coordination with Davao Occidental Gov. Franklin Bautista.

In women’s Open singles, top seed Te- nielle Madis moved into the semis with a couple of 6-0, 6-0 victories over Nina Nano and Rovie Baulete although the M’lang, Cotabato faces a formidable challenger in Elizabeth Abarquez, who escaped with a 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 decision over Lenelyn Milo before crushing Danna Abad, 6-1, 6-1.

Second seed Nichole dela Rita from Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, on the other hand, recovered from an opening set struggle and repulsed Angelie Ripdos, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, to set up a duel with No. 5 Alexei Santos, who ripped Jessica Carcueva, 6-1, 6-0, after a similar scorline win over Angela Cabaral.

The women’s singles offers P30,000 to the winner out of the total prize fund of P664,000 in the biggest event staged in Davao region also held in conjunction with its Paugnat Festival celebrations and at the same time to inspire the host city’s youngsters to get into sports.

The bombshell deal announced last week that will have the PGA Tour and DP World Tour joining forces with LIV’s Saudi backers has raised plenty of questions, and the ill-feeling won’t evaporate overnight.

McIlroy himself said after the deal was announced that he still “hates” LIV, although he did say he believed Koepka’s PGA Championship win —the first major triumph for a LIV golfer—showed he deserved to play in the Ryder Cup.

Among other marquee groups, Masters champion Jon Rahm, ranked second in the world, tees off on the 10th hole at 8:24 on Thursday alongside sixth-ranked American Xander Schauffele and world number five Viktor Hovland of Norway.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 Masters champion, goes off at 8:13 playing with two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and Max Homa.

The trio are among the few in the field who have played tournament golf at Los Angeles Country Club. Morikawa and Scheffler were on the US Walker Cup team that beat Britain and Ireland on the North Course in 2017 while Homa holds the course record of 61—shot in the first round of the 2013 US collegiate Pacific-12 conference championship.

A little bit different

Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick of England will paly the first two rounds alongside reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith of Australia—another LIV Golf player and American Sam Bennett. Bennett has turned pro since earning low amateur honors at the Masters.

Both Fitzpatrick and Smith were slowing getting to know the course as of Monday. From what he’d seen so far, Smith said, it could offer a different type of US Open challenge.

“I guess we’re used to that kind of really thick, juicy rough,” Smith said. “It’s a little bit different here. I think the Bermuda rough, I think you can get kind of lucky or unlucky.

“There’s patches out there where they’re actually quite thin and you can get away with kind of a bad shot and other patches where if you’re in there it’s no good at all. I think that’s a little bit different. AFP