Rural Bankers up by four in Fil-Am

BAGUIO — Antonio Tan shot 23 points and led Rural Bankers Golf Association to a four-stroke lead in Am D at the start of the 57th Fil-Am Golf Invitational at the Baguio Country Club golf course here yesterday.

With the 22 of Doy Mercado, and 20s of Eduardo Bucag and Seve Oliva, the Bankers tallied an opening 85 for an auspicious start in their title-retention bid in the tournament backed by Wilson Sports, Pacsports, Generali Pilipinas, San Miguel Corp., Asian Spirit, Ayala Land, Ottica Eyewear, University of Baguio, Texas Instruments, Eva Air, U-Bix, Club Car and Travel Club.

Jaime Chua shot the division’s best score of 25 and powered Team Victory/JVC to 81 points, four behind the first day leader.

Butch Ramillo chipped in 21 points, while Robbie Hermoso and Faustino Salud added 20 and 15 points, respectively.

Host Baguio Country Club opened with 75 after Benjie Favis made 24 points in the tournament that uses the PAL Stableford format of scoring where a par is worth two points, birdie three and bogey one.

Romy Ignacio added 20 while Michael Sy and Mariano Ang, the only remnant of the Am E champions last year, contributed 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Falken Golf Team started its bid with 71 points to lead eight other teams in Am E. Joe Cruz fired 21 points and led the team to a three-stroke lead over Ambros-Guam.

Enrico Santos (20), Florentino Mercado (16) and Henry Sicangco (14) also counted for Falken.

Jun Aggabao’s 20 was tops for the Guamanians who also got 17 from Larry Lisama, 16 from Frank Shimizu Sr. and either of the identical 15s of Tom Shimizu and Romy Villanueva.

East Loch Golf Club was another three shots behind.

A total of 1,056 players from all over the country and the Asia Pacific Rim including Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii and the US mainland are to see action in the two-week tournament which former Sen. Rogelio de la Rosa and John Hay commander Archie Black launched after the country’s independence from the US.

The Fil-Am, which the BCC and the Camp John Hay jointly host, is one of the biggest tourist drawers in the city where a minimum of P35 million reportedly goes to the coffers of the hosts and millions more for the city.