TONY Benavente and Sun Suk Kim claimed the top spots of their respective divisions in the 16th Annual Northern Marianas College Golf Tournament at the LaoLao Bay Golf & Resort on Saturday.
Benavente, who has played in many NMC golf events before, excelled in the seniors open division thanks to his performance on the front nine. It all started at hole #3 where he scored an eagle using a 3 wood.
He then followed up with two birdies at holes #4 and #5 for a near 4-under ending and a gross score of 34.
Although Benavente had a tougher time on the back nine, scoring a gross of 40, his earlier output was enough to put him on top with a net score of 74. He won $500 cash for his first place finish.
Joseph Sablan settled for second place with a net score of 76 while Hall of Famer Joe “Kamikaze” Camacho placed third with a net score of 77.
Tony Satur was fourth with a net score of 79 while Federico Flores was fifth with a net score of 80.
Benavente said he was up against “very good players like Joe Camacho and Tony Satur, and all the other guys who have been winning tournaments, so I said to myself, ‘Just do what you can.’ When you do your best something good happens, and you may succeed. Honestly, I did not expect to finish first but everything worked well. Wow, surprise, surprise!”
Benavente added, “It was truly a great day today. Thanks to NMC — it was a beautiful tournament and a great turnout.”
Ladies
In the ladies open division, Sun Suk Kim bagged the top spot with a net score of 81. Yuko Togawa played well but was one stroke shy in second place with a net of 82. In third was Gil Ah Kim Yoon with a net score of 54, Me Ae Jeon was fourth with 85, and Yin Nu Cai was fifth with 86.
In the low net category of the ladies open, Gil Ah Kim Yoon took first place with a low net score of 72 while Lorraine Babauta was second with 73.8.
The other flight winners will be featured in Variety’s next edition.