Pro-am ushers in RP Open

The curtains are raised for the 86th edition of the Philippine Open golf championship via a pro-am competition today with a full roster of 54 teams seeing action at the fabled East course of the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong.

Tee-off starts as early as 6:09 a.m. with VIPs, golf officials and sponsoring guests playing alongside invited foreign and local pros under a best-ball format.

At 8 a.m. the ceremonial balls will be hit by Wack Wack president Ben Abalos, National Golf Association of the Philippines president Rod Feliciano, Vice Admiral Luisito Fernandez of the NGAP, chairman Ephraim Genuino of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming, Corp. (Pagcor) and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines president and Chief Executive Officer Teruhiko Shibata.

"The foreign players are here, the local pros are raring to go, we’re all set for the 2001 Open," organizing committee chair Benny Gopez declared yesterday.

Casino Filipino and San Miguel Beer are the co-presenters of this year’s Open with the major support of Mitsubishi Motors, Herma Group and Hope Luxury Cigarette.

The other sponsors are Hanjin Shipping, General Milling, Bingo Bonanza, Prudential Pension Plan, Unilever, Cinnabon, Metrobank, Basic Holdings, Citra Tollways, Pyramid Construction, Executive Golfers Club, Inc., Electrobus Consolidated, Philtec Label, Wallem Shipping, Rudy Project, Marsman Drysdale, GG&A Club Shares, First Georgetown Ventures, Riviera Golf and Country Club, Philippine Navy, Philippine Army, Mizuno, Solahart, Citgo, U-Bix, Nextel, Greenfields Development Corp., and Caffe Appassionato.

Defending champion Gerald Rosales and Cassius Casas, the country’s top players, are beefing up two teams from Casino Filipino while Robert Pactolerin, the 1990 winner, teams up with Mitsubishi 5 in the apertif to the P9.5 million Open proper starting tomorrow up to Sunday.

A total of P250,000 are up for grabs in the pro-am with P175,000 allotted for the top finishers in the individual category and another P75,000 for the top five pros in the team competition.

A brand new Mitsubishi Lancer GLS manual will also be up for grabs as a hole-in-one prize.

The low gross scorer gets P50,000, the runner-up P40,000, third placer P30,000 all the way down to the 10th finisher who gets P5,000. The pro of the winning team pockets P25,000 while the runner-up receives P20,000.

Trophies and attractive merchandise items are at stake for the amateur winners.

Meanwhile, Korean Anthony Kang, the 1999 champion at Manila Southwoods, made a late withdrawal yesterday due to a "family emergency."

Kang and his brother David sent an e-mail to organizers saying that they were all set to go until they were forced to fly back to the US where they are based due to the incident.