Atalig, Kim lead winners in Docomo Classic

J.J. Atalig and Jeong Yoon Kim led a slew of winners in last Saturday’s 2nd Docomo Classic Golf Tournament held at the Laolao Bay Golf Resort.

Atalig topped the Championship Flight, while Kim won the Ladies Flight.

Atalig grossed a 79 that calculated into a modified score of 65 for first place. Joung Hoon Park grossed an 81 and finished three strokes back, while Nick Sablan’s gross of 89 was good for third place with a modified score of 72.

Atalig has been playing golf for just three years and was a little surprised to take top honors because he was not very familiar with the scoring format.

“Normally I play from the blue tees, but the tourney was from the white boxes and overall I felt pleased with my position heading into the final three holes. It feels great to win, but all in all I was focusing more on having fun,” he said.

Atalig started the day on hole No. 2 and was referring to the long distances of holes No. 17, 18, and 1.

Kim, meanwhile, scratched an impressive 75 that worked out to a Ladies Flight-best 59. Jeon Young Im grossed an 89, but ended up in second place with a 61, while Yuko Togawa’s 79 slid into third place with a modified card of 63. A total of 17 players made up the field.

Ed Cho topped the nine-player A Flight with a gross score of 78 that factored into a 59; he donated his winnings back to the cause. Alex Sablan and Freddie Cataluna both grossed identical 80s, but Sablan’s handicap gave him the nod for runner-up by a stroke, 62-61.

In the 22-member B Flight, junior golfer Lawrence Camacho Jr. grossed an 84 that factored into a 61. Camacho’s score edged out the post-handicap score of 62 registered by both Ray Villagomez Rene Bartallones.

The C Flight winner was John D. Cruz, who turned in an 81 gross score that worked out into a 57. Mark Blackburn wrote in a raw 94 that also formatted into a 57 for second place and Jack McClure rounded out the third spot with a gross 87 for a 59 modified count; 31 players made up the C-flight.

In the Senior Flight, Jimmy Whang’s grossed a 91 for a 64 and was awarded first place ahead of Ed Manibusan. Manibusan scored a 77 gross that also came out to a 64 modified tally, while Lee Jong Sik’s 81 gross card finished a stroke short after the format adjustment; 17-players made up the senior field.

First place winners took home $300, second $200, and third $100.

The turnout of the event improved from 77 players last year to 99 its second time around.

Net proceeds raised from the event were donated to the Marianas Tourism Education Council, which is an organization focused on increasing awareness and supporting tourism related programs benefitting students of the CNMI Public School System.

The event utilized a modified Calloway scoring system, which works like an individual 18-hole tournament where a player’s handicap is used to formulate their net score; the player’s highest and lowest scores are also discarded during this process.