La Salle, Ateneo clash in intercollegiate golf

MANILA, Philippines - De La Salle begins its title-retention bid as it takes on archrival Ateneo at the start of the 2009 Intercollegiate Golf Championship today at its home turf at the Sherwood Hills Golf and Country Club in Cavite.

Aside from the Green Archers and the Blue Eagles, other schools participating in this annual event backed by the Philippine Golf Foundation are College of St. Benilde, University of the Philippines, University of Asia and the Pacific and Lyceum of the Philippines.

Other matches today are the CSB Blazers against the UAP Dragons, while the UP Marrons meet the Lyceum Pirates.

The tournament gives financial assistance of P 1,000 per team every week, although should the team default, the money must be returned to the organizers.

Teams can use a minimum of four players and each roster must be played at least once during the eliminations. A one point deduction will be levied for every player found lacking in mandatory play.

Substitutions are allowed before the start of the second round of the eliminations, provided the player has not yet played.

The students should be enrolled in at least 12 units as certified by the university registrar, while the only exception to the minimum number of units is a graduating student.

A student not over 25 years old and amateur in status who meets the enrolment criteria and is allowed to participate in the tournament may be allowed to finish the tournament even if he has already graduated.

The participating schools will play each other twice in the first round, with the opening day matches resuming on Dec. 13.

Other first round schedules are DLSU-UP, UAP-AdMU and CSB-Lyceum on Nov. 15 and Dec. 20, UP-CSB, UAP-DLSU and AdMU-Lyceum on Nov. 22 and Jan. 10, CSB-DLSU, Lyceum-UAP and UP-AdMU on Nov. 29 and Jan. 17, DLSU-Lyceum, UAP-UP, and AdMU-CSB on Dec. 6 and Jan. 24.

The finals are on Jan. 31 and Feb. 7, 2010.