BAGUIO CITY—Competitions in the higher flights of the regular 68th Department of Tourism Fil-Am Invitational Golf Tournament starts today (Monday) after the ceremonial tee this afternoon at both the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay golf courses.
With more than 600 players seeing action in the second half of competition, expect Manila Southwoods to banner the three-team field Fil Championship flight with expectedly the same line up last year, led by Yuto Katsuragawa, who shot an eight under in four-day of competition.
“Definitely we’re on,” said both co-chairs Anthony de Leon of BCC and Tim Allen of CJH.
It will be a four flight schedule in the first day of competition with Flights A, B, D and E taking off. Games in Flight A are Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, while flight B sked is on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday also. Flight D games are also played on the same days as A and E games are also on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Games in the premier Championship flights are on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, while C games are on the days.
This time, the first two rounds in the Fil division will be at CJH and the last two are at BCC, the Am games are reversed.
Last year, Southwoods romped off with the titles in the Championship flight Forest Hills and Mizuno X-1R, both challengers have won one title a piece.
Southwoods’ opponents in Am Championship are Team Time Cargo Logistics, Leeward – Fil-Am and Razons of Guagua.
Last year, the Southwoods Am team led by veteran Junjun Plana won by a whopping 88 points. Plana has been with Southwoods since 1997.
Last week, Luisita Golf and Country Club swept the Seniors’ Championship flight by 30 and 10 points over their nearest rivals Southwoods and CJH in Fil and Am divisions, respectively.
It was a win Luisita its members will cherish since it was the first time the team played in Fil-Am after 23 years. It was also an icing of sorts after the win in the PAL Interclub earlier this year.