Chase begins for WWWExpress Amateur golf plum

MANILA, Philippines - The WWWExpress-DHL National Amateur Golf Championships begins today with a shootout among the cream of the crop and a crack foreign contingent expected right in the first round of the 14th staging of the event at the north course of the Canlubang Golf and Country Club in Laguna.

Rufino Bayron hopes to flash the form he dished out in ruling last year’s edition of the annual event and in humbling the country’s top pros to win the Valley leg crown of the Philippine Golf Tour late last year as he leads the chase for top honors in the event sponsored by WWWExpress and DHL.

“I feel good but I don’t want to predict,” said Bayron, spearhead of the crack ICTSI golf stable, in Filipino. “I can only tell my chances after the first round.”

A strong start is what Bayron needs as a host of others are tipped to do the same, including club bets Jhonnel Ababa, Jessie Balasabas, Mark Fernando and Zanieboy Gialon along with ICTSI teammates Ferdie Aunzo, Antonio Asistio and Anthony Fernando.

Focus will also be on a talented foreign contingent, led by Singapore’s national team composed of Quincy Quek, the reigning Putra Cup individual winner, Jerome Ng and David Lam Jr. along with Indonesia’s mid-amateur champion Rizal Arya plus a number of Koreans from Riviera, Del Monte and Eagleridge.

A battle royale is also expected in the 16-player ladies side with Chihiro Ikeda hardpressed to come up with a solid campaign in her title retention bid against fellow ICTSI mainstays Anya Tanpinco, Sarah Ababa and reigning RP Ladies Open champion Louise Manalo.

“I’m in fine form but I can’t tell my chances at this stage. I will just try my best to defend my crown,” said Ikeda.

But Crystal Shin will be the marked player in the distaff side after the Korean ace beat the country’s top players to capture her third crown in the Southern Ladies Open last week at Pueblo de Oro in Cagayan de Oro.

Also featured in the four-day championship is the foreign-laced team competition, a three-to-play, two-to-count event, which WWWExpress chair and golf patron Rod Feliciano put up last year to pit the local players against those from other SEA countries.

Feliciano, along with DHL national GMNC Edmund Hsiung and DHL deputy country manager Christophe Piganiol, NGAP sec-gen Jun Galindez, NGAP director and tournament chair Pablo Soon, Cangolf’s Luigi Yulo and Benny Ricafort, president of Clark Dev’t. Corp., will hit the ceremonial drive.