Southern Ladies ace amateurs test venue

MANILA, Philippines -  The country’s leading golfing ladies get the chance to test the Bacolod Golf and Country Club layout today as they play in the LAM-Am tournament, which traditionally kicks off the Southern Ladies Golf Championship firing of Thursday in Bacolod.

Defending champion Dottie Ardina and chief rival Chihiro Ikeda head the field that also includes the top players from the country’s various golf clubs in the 48th staging of the annual 54-hole tournament organized and conducted by the National Golf Association of the Phils.

Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia, Philippine Olympic Committee chair Monico Puentevella, NGAP sec-gen Edgar Arceo Jr., NGAP auditor and NGAP ladies committee head Alice Andrada and Murcia Mayor Andrew Montelibano will hit the ceremonial drives at 7:30 a.m.

Leandro Lopez Montelibano, treasurer of the host club, will also join the group to represent BGCC president Rodolfo Montelibano in the ceremonial tee-off of the event backed by the PSC, Kaiser International, Directories Phils. Corp (DPC) Yellow Pages, Hans Brumann Jeweler, WWWExpress, DHL Express and Business Inn, the official hotel.

Ardina is seeking to defend the crown she won over Ikeda at the Iloilo Golf and Country Club last year, where she birdied the final hole to win by one point under the Molave scoring system.

But Ikeda is coming off a victory in the Philippine Ladies Open and should be in top form while Ardina is still trying to recover from a couple of mediocre stints heading into the Bacolod meet.

However, another ICTSI team member looms large in the event as Andie Unson hopes to sustain the momentum of her solid showing in last week’s The Country Club Invitational where she won the low amateur honors under tough playing condition.

Unson, winner of the Optimist International crown in Florida last year, also won the Philippine International Junior Golf Championship at the Ayala Greenfield last month, making her the player to watch in this week’s tournament.