Rolando Bregente matched par 72 on a rainy Wednesday to earn top seeding in men’s play of the NGAP’s Match Play Championship, even as the double championship bid of young Lisa Sarines will have to go through her twin sister Mona in the first round of the knockout matches at soggy Luisita in Tarlac.
Jet Hernandez, the player who has a shot at the men’s double, advanced as the No. 3 seed by shooting a 74 for 142, as Filipino-Japanese Shinichi Suzuki took No. 2 after a second round 70 to finish two shots behind the 24-year-old Bregente, who closed out the two-round qualifying with a 72 for 139.
‘I think half the challenge this week was making it to the match play stage,’ Hernandez, who won the Strokeplay title by 22 strokes over Bregente and Chris Remata last week, said as he battles teener Alexis Nailga, a multiple leg winner in the Junior PGT, who advanced as the 14th seed after rounds of 78 and 75.
Bregente, a member of the national pool like Hernandez, will be up against Ronel Taga-An, who fired an 80 to advance as the No. 16 seed, even as the 6-foot-3 Suzuki slugs it out with Geoffrey Tan.