DAVAO ,Philippines – After months of preparations, more than 800 amateur lady golfers will finally strut their wares as they vie for top honors in different divisions in the sixth Philippine Airlines (PAL) Ladies Interclub which starts today at the Rancho Palos Verdes Golf and Country Club here.
The participants, which will include two foreign squads from Japan and Australia, will be divided into four divisions – Championship, Founders, Sportswriters and Friendship –according to their respective handicaps. Rules of play will be based on the PAL Seniors Interclub tournament.
Alabang Country Club is favored to continue its winning ways in the revived tournament from Nov. 22 to 25. It won back-to-back victories in 1997-1998. Before that, Luisita, Villamor, and Bonifacio got one title each.
The PAL Ladies Interclub, with the theme She Swings! and revived by PAL this year, actually kicked off festivities with the traditional tee-off Monday led by PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista and Philippine Department of Tourism-Hong Kong representative David Leung.
Also present in the tee-off at Rancho Palos Verdes were PAL executives Atty. Domingo Duerme, senior assistant vice president for Mindanao, and Felix Cruz Jr., vice president for marketing support along with Rancho Palos Verdes club president Anthony Sasin and independent director Jose Francisco Llamas.
The PAL Ladies Interclub is backed by classic sponsors Stargate Media, Business Mirror, Hi-Definition Radio, GECAS, Crossover, Kumare Klub on TV5, Boeing, Radio Mindanao Network, Airbus and Manila Hotel.
Donors are Asia Brewery, Tanduay, Paris Hilton Shop at Abreeza Mall, Microtel Hotels & Resorts, Imperial Palace Cebu, Mandarin Oriental and Bluewater Resorts.
Meanwhile, at yesterday’s team captains meeting of the participating teams, the historic Iloilo Golf and Country Club in Sta. Barbara, acknowledged as the oldest golf course in the Philippines, has been chosen as the host venue for the PAL Ladies Interclub in 2012.
An exciting and different awards ceremony on Nov. 25 (different from the traditional PAL regular men’s interclub awards) will include a special prize of free round-trip Business class ticket to the US to any lady golfer who makes a hole-in-one at any hole of Rancho Palos Verdes.