Cebu’s bets ready for PAL Interclub

The Philippine Airlines Interclub Tournament will return to the City of Golden Friendships a week and a few days from now and four golf clubs in Cebu will be fielding teams to the event.

Unlike last year when there wasn’t complete participation from the Cebu clubs, all four – Alta Vista, Cebu Country Club, Club Filipino, and Mactan – will have teams for both the seniors and regular men’s events.

The seniors’ tournament will be played on the 16th to the 18th using the Molave Points System at the Pueblo de Oro and Del Monte golf courses. Although the event runs for three days, players will only see action for two rounds.

Alta Vista’s senior team will be manned by Tony Amor, Ben Yu, Bobby Barria, Boy Gonzalez, Rod Señido, Ed Sanchez, Oscar Sanchez, and skipper Rolly Santos. The alternates for the team are Dr. Totoy San Juan, Virgilio Chua and Jun Caoili.

Cebu Country Club’s seniors’ team will be led by Reny Sarmiento and is composed of Anton Florendo, Atty. Julius Neri, Koichi Horii, Masatsugi Ochiai, Masaya ‘Happy’ Hishida, Eddie Ong, and Efren Sarmiento.

Club Filipino’s squad will be skippered by club president Renato Osmeña and the players are Ret. Generals Samuel Dunque and Leo Alvez, Retired Commodore Danny Flores, former Mayor Alvin Garcia, Arsenio Estenzo, Bugs Unchuan, and Ed Osmeña.

I wasn’t able to get hold of the line up of Mactan yesterday, but definitely the club is sending a team to the seniors’ event according to my sources.

I also got a confirmation from Ed Misa, president of Mercedes Plantation Golf and Country Club that they will be fielding a seniors team but not one for the regular tournament.

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For the men’s regular event, which runs from the 21st to the 24th, Alta Vista’s team will be composed of Enrico Solon, Kim Kwang Seok, Kim-Oh Jung, Ed Acain, Lando Alberto, Gene Aznar, Emir Abutazil, Vic Gocela, Wendell Yap, and club treasurer Ramon Sebastian. Dennis Canoy and Alex Garcia are listed as alternates.

Ramontito Garcia is the skipper of the Cebu Country Club team that is bidding to defend its title in the Founders Division is it won’t be promoted to the Championship class. The players are Carl Almario, Eric Deen, Mark Dy, William Hong, Jovi Neri, Marko Sarmiento, Joseph Stevens, Jojo Tiongko, and the team’s big brother Nonoy Tirol.

The men’s team of Club Filipino will be led by Boboy Durano, who will be joined by Vic Yuvallos, Edwardson Chiu, Evans Tumaliwan, Alvin Alazas, Lito Barino, Kenneth Dyguani, Jun Zosa, Peter Militante, and Abel de Manuel.

Atty. Nilo Seno, a good friend since our high school days told me that he will again be part of the Mactan team. The other members are Andoy Modares, Hubert Calan, Roy Dadula, Jonathan Dionson, Dustin Morada, Gungun Gica, Renato Aquino, Kim Agatep, and the very amiable Retired General Rodante Joya.

During the first few PAL Interclub tournaments that I went to, there wasn’t really much to write about the Cebu teams as they could hardly make it to the top five of their categories.

Things have changed the past several years though and this makes the coverage more exciting. It’s just like watching a game, if you’re not rooting for anyone, it’s not fun.

I don’t mind walking on the golf course without holding any club or hitting a ball as long as I see the Cebu teams winning. That surely is inspiration enough to write my stories.