Manta Rays win golf; Kwon takes 9-hole tourney

Saipan Southern High School’s boys and girls golf teams cleaned out the Marianas Interscholastic Sports Organization’s awards after the conclusion of Thursday’s final round held at the Laolao Bay Golf Resort’s west course.

SSHS was presented with perpetual team trophies, which will be displayed in the school’s trophy case until next year’s champions are crowned.

The SSHS Mantas are led by sophomore standout Soon Hyung Kwon, who finished the four-round season with a field low -67 individual tally that paced teammates Edwin Arceo, Luis Liu, Grant Rhee, and Yoon Jae Won.

The group finished with a total count of -124 for first place, just 8 strokes ahead of Kagman High School’s seven-man Ayuyus (-116). The Marianas High School’s Dolphins duo of Zak Yamagishi and Tiger rounded out the third spot at -60.

KHS senior Spencer Camacho finished second place at -51, while a -36 by MHS’ Tiger edged out SSHS’s Grant (-35) for third place on the podium.

Soon lost to Camacho -14 to -17 in the season opener, but rebounded nicely and took the last three rounds with a -17, -18, and another -18 on Thursday.

The Lady Mantas’ foursome, comprised of freshmen field-low finisher Boh Yun, Kim, Donnatella Guzman, senior Da Young Hang, and Ciuss Morales finished the season with a grand total of -80 for top honors over a seven-lady KHS Ayuyu squad (-51). Only the two schools made up the field.

Kim’s -24 overall count clipped her teammate Hang (-31) by three strokes with KHS Lady Ayuyu’s Kiona Mendiola taking third place at -21.

Kim started slow out of the gate with just a -4 in the season opener, but stepped up her game in the last three legs with an -11, -9, and finally a -10 on Thursday.

In total, 14 boys and 11 girls participated in the season, which included two nine-hole rounds played at Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort and at Laolao’s west course.

In addition, the group gathered again the next day at COP for MISO’s first-ever postseason nine-hole tournament that ended with SSHS shining again, especially Kwon who snagged the top prize in the boys division with a -23, just one stroke ahead of KHS’ Camacho, while a -19 scratched by MHS’ Zak Yamagishi earned third place honors.

As for the ladies, SSHS swept the board, but this time Hang came out on top as her -19 narrowly showed up Kim’s -18 with teammate De Guzman finishing third overall.

The Top 3 place finishers were each awarded medals and a coupon for a free-nine hole round of golf compliments of COP. Eight boys and seven girls turned out for Friday’s send-off event held on the front nine; four other coupons were also raffled away to the students before the winners were recognized.

The scores may look peculiar because of the developmental program’s special scoring system where basically standard par is doubled and if a player exceeds double par on a hole they simply pick their ball up and start fresh on the next hole.

MISO organizers would like to thank Mr. Fumoto and Vince Torres of Suwaso Corp. and COP, as well as Laolao Bay Golf Resort.

Next year, MISO hopes to expand the number of participating schools in addition to organizing more special nine-hole tournaments at other courses.