Tee, 21, and Clutario humbled their respective fancied rivals from Singapore to bag the most coveted gold medals in the recent SEA Games — the masters crowns — with the former defeating Remy Ong and the latter dominating Jazreel Tan to help power Team Philippines to the overall championship in the biennial games.
And they both hope to keep that momentum and contend for top honors in this week’s tournament, featuring the best bowlers in the region, including the top 16 men and top 16 women finishers of the 2005 Asian Bowling Tour.
The first two days of competition will be played on a round-robin format with the top eight bowlers in the men’s and women’s competitions advancing to the single-game knockout stage.
Joining Tee and Clutario are fellow Filipino bowlers Tyrone Ongpauco in the men’s side and Liza del Rosario, Apple Posadas and Jojo Canare in the ladies division.
This year’s Tournament of Champions (TOC) will see top Asian bowlers from 11 countries competing for the title with the men’s side representing 10 countries and the women cast coming from four countries.
The Philippines has the second most number of entries in the event with six, next to Malaysia, which has 12 bets. Singapore and Chinese Taipei has three representatives each while Hong Kong has two.
Tee, seeded 12th with 98 points, and Ongpauco, the Singapore leg champion and ranked 15th with 75 points, are expected to have their hands full against an equally-talented bunch of rivals, who have impressive strings of titles going into the finals. Current Asian No. 1 and top qualifier for the TOC with 264 points is Alex Liew of Malaysia, who has won five international titles, including two ABF Tour legs - the inaugural Qatar leg and the Indonesia leg.
Teammates, Azidi Ameran (2nd-185 pts), TOC debutant, Aaron Kong (4th-154 pts) and Zulmazran Zulkifli (6th-140 pts) will add weight to Malaysia’s chances in the finals. With local crowd support, Indonesia’s prolific performer, Ryan Lalisang, will definitely give the Malaysians a hard fight.
Clutario is ranked 10th in the distaff side with Del Rosario, a consistent Asian circuit campaigner, gaining the No. 2 seeding following her victory in Hong Kong. Posadas, winner of the Philippine leg, maker her debut in the event at No. 14th with 90 points while Canare is ranked 15th with 82 points.
The five Malaysian representatives are reigning TOC champion, Wendy Chai, Choy Poh Lai, Siti Safiyah Amirah, Women World Championship singles gold medalist, Esther Cheah and Zandra Aziela.