Filipino Enrique Dimayuga wins Putra Cup double at SEA Amateur Golf Team C’ships

SINGAPORE – As a dazed Enrique Dimayuga walked off the 18th green at Seletar Country Club after missing a four-foot putt for par, he was expecting a play-off for the individual title at the South-east Asian Amateur Golf Team Championships.

He had a flawless eight-under through 15 holes, but bogeys in his last three holes after a three-hour rain delay saw his three-shot lead over Singapore’s Ryan Ang in the men’s Putra Cup evaporate.

Instead, Dimayuga was greeted by Ang who said: “Congratulations, you won on countback.”

In the end, the Filipino’s missed putt did not matter, as his final-round five-under 67 beat Ang’s 68 after both players finished on 11-under 277, two strokes ahead of Vietnam’s Le Khanh Hung (67) in third. Another Vietnamese, Nguyen Ahn Minh (71) was fourth on 281.

Dimayuga told The Straits Times: “I didn’t realise that it was going to be on countback. That’s why I was so nervous and it felt way worse than I did. I have to be honest, I didn’t want to win like that. I’d rather finish strong and play the best golf I can.

“I hadn’t held a club in three hours and when I was holding the putter, it didn’t feel normal. But I’m just glad that I was able to see it through and it didn’t get too bad.”

But the 22-year-old is not keeping the trophy, as he will send it back to the Philippines’ national team headquarters, just like his other titles.

He added: “I like to think winning happens more than once so I don’t really like to savour it. I just keep going. I’m not worried it won’t happen again. I don’t need them (the trophies) around as reminders.”

Not only did Dimayuga win back-to-back tournaments after clinching the Singapore Open Amateur men’s title on July 5, but he also helped the Philippines win the Putra Cup team competition for the first time since 2013.

Together with Carl Jano Corpus (71), Shinichi Suzuki (73) and Jet Hernandez (76), they finished on 17-under 847 overall. Only the top three scores in each round count towards the team’s score.

Vietnam (857) came second while Thailand (859) beat Singapore (865) to the bronze medal.

Ang said: “The goal today was to shoot between four and six under, which I did. I’m not disappointed at all and I did my best. But I’m more concerned about the team event which we unfortunately fell short. We really wanted to win the bronze.”

However, there was joy for Singapore in the boys’ Under-16 Lion City Cup, which the hosts won with a seven-over 583 total, five shots ahead of Thailand.

But third-round individual leader Brayden Lee laboured to a five-over 77 which dropped him to fourth, two shots ahead of compatriot Troy Storm (70) who finished with a six-over 294 overall.

Vietnam’s Ho Anh Huy carded a 70 for a 289 total to edge out Malaysia’s Joshua Lim (74) for the title by a stroke while Thai Parin Sarasmut (68) was third on 291.

Due to the weather delay, final-round play was cancelled in the women’s Santi Cup and girls’ U-16 Kartini Cup.

This meant Singapore’s Aloysa Atienza and Chen Xingtong clinched the individual Santi Cup and Kartini Cup titles respectively with total scores of one-under 215 and four-over 220 respectively.

But Singapore lost the Kartini Cup team trophy to Thailand on the third-score tiebreaker, with both teams tied on 13-over 445 overall. Denise Ng’s third-round 83 was bettered by Kritchanya Kaopattanaskul’s 81.

Thailand also claimed the Santi Cup title with a three-over 435 total, defeating Singapore’s trio of Atienza, Inez Ng and Jaymie Ng by two strokes.