Grizzled veterans start Fil-Am quest

BAGUIO – Whether it’s as good and strong as it is on paper will be known starting today as the fancied CAP-Southwoods team begins its quest for a third straight crown in the Fil-Am men’s international golf tournament at the short but challenging Baguio Country Club.

The roster is a national team material – actually it is, but for one reason or another, its mainstays failed to represent the country in the last SEA Games and were replaced by a squad composed of the very players out to foil the Southwoods bets’ three-peat bid here.

Reigning champion Angelo Que, former titlist Artemio Murakami, the talented Jerome Delariarte, veteran campaigner Jun Jun Plana and Erwin Vinluan, who partnered with Noli Kempis to win the recent UBix pro-am championship at Riviera, compose the CAP-Southwoods squad whose pre-tournament hype should complement with the talent it has in its fold.

Not only it is a powerhouse team, but a roster teeming with power-hitters.

But one doesn’t need the length at the BCC layout, a tight par-61 layout with 11 par 3s which Jeric Hechanova, the Southwoods team manager, said might set the tone for their bid in the Championship Flight, the centerpiece event of the annual championship spread over six days at two courses – the other being the tough par-69 Camp John Hay course.

"It is more difficult to tackle a course with a lot of par 3s because it is not favorable for birdie bids unlike in a regular course with par 4s," said Hechanova. "So I wouldn’t be surprised if Mizuno-DHL even takes the lead in the first round since it boasts of three members of the national team."

He was referring to former Uratex caddies champion Jay Bayron and Marvin Dumandan, members of the RP team in the recent SEA Games in Malaysia, along with alternate Gene Bondoc, spearhead of the Mizuno-DHL squad which also includes Emilio Tuason.

"They are all talented but if there’s one advantage we have, it is experience," added Hechanova.

Their working knowledge of the two courses and the skills they have harnessed in competing in tournaments of this magnitude should indeed favor the Southwoods bets in this championships long regarded as the biggest in terms of participation and sponsored by Smart, Sony-Ericsson, College Assurance Plan, Eva Air and John Hay Poro Point Development Corp.

Others out to spoil the expected CAP-Southwoods-Mizuno-DHL showdown are Fairways and Bluewater and Forest Hills.