View golf organizers sked shotgun tee off

Organizers of the View Invitational 2005 have decided to do a shotgun tee off for the tournament set this Thursday to Sunday at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club to accommodate over 500 participants, which is a record field for the event, which was first held in 1999.

Tessa Ozoa, general manager of AVGCC, told The FREEMAN yesterday that the organizing committee had no other choice but to do a shotgun tee off, which means participants will be assigned to a specific hole around the course to open his round and everybody will start simultaneously, due to the sheer volume of entries.

Ozoa said that the tee off schedule on Thursday and Friday will be 5:30 am for the morning flight and 11:30 am for the second group. There will be an adjustment on Saturday and Sunday, where the morning group tees off at 5:15 am and the second set will start at 11:15 am.

She is reminding all the participants to be at the venue not later than 30 minutes before the tee off schedule to allow time to go to the assigned holes.

This is also the first time that the entries for the club's annual member-guest event has broken the 500 mark since in previous years, organizers have always limited participation to 400 players.

One of the big come-ons for the event are the giveaways where each participant gets a pair of Nike Golf Shoes and a Nike shirt, which are worth already about twice the amount of the entry fee.

There will also be three cars at stake for a hole-in-one: an Audi A-4 from PGA Cars and Prudential Guarantee and Assurance Inc. and a Kia Picanto compact car and a Kia Sorento SUV courtesy of Columbian Auto Corporation.

Other hole-in-one prizes for the 36-hole tournament are a Sta. Lucia lot, a Club Car golf cart from Turf Company, and a class A share from Aznar Bros. Realty, P100,000 from CICI General Insurance, an airline ticket from Marist Holiday Travel and Tour, and a Yamaha motorcycle from Norkis Trading.

Nito's (Skygo) International is putting a Skygo motorcycle on line for an eagle on all par-4 holes. In case nobody scores an eagle, this will be raffled off during the awards ceremony set at the Alta Vista poolside.

The major sponsors are Globe Telecom and Taiyo Yuden (Phils.) Inc. alongside Alpa Oil Mill, which will also be giving away items to all participants.

The silver sponsors are APP-Trigon-CEI, Cebu Mitsumi Inc. and Lilly Industries.

The hole sponsors are Aviva-CGU International Insurance, Carlos A. Gothong Lines, Chateau de Busay, Direct Link Insurance, Federal Chemical Marketing Company Inc., Gillamac's Marketing Inc., Keppel Cebu Shipyard, More Classic, Nikku International Ltd. Co., Options Logistics Inc., Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Segye Nadri Travel and Tour Corp., Treasure Island Industrial Corp., United Laboratories Inc., and Wealthbank. The other cash sponsors are Patricio Go of Metrobank, Kaishu Seafood, Sunflower Village Development Inc., and Gen. Consul Ceferino L. Benedicto.

Sponsors in kind are Cebu Bionic Builders, Granstar Motors & Industrial Corp., International Pharmaceuticals Inc., Kaishu Seafood and Japanese Restaurant, Mack Mayer Publishing/Southwall Magazine, Max Water Trading, Premier Wines, Profood International Corp., Rudy Project, Selanah, Stocks R Us, VMC, and Y101.