Another interclub

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is staging an interclub tournament for junior golfers. Why not?

The event will be held this November 22 to 25 at the Fairways and Bluewater Golf and Country Club in Boracay and will be officially called the PAL Junior Golf Interclub Tournament.

This is the fourth interclub golf event of the country’s flag carrier after the storied PAL Interclub Golf Tournament, the PAL Seniors Interclub, and the recently-revived PAL Ladies Interclub.

The junior golf tournament will have teams composed of four players aged 15 to 17 years old (group 1), two aged 13 to 14 (group 2), and two aged 12 and below (group 3).

Each day a team must field four players composed of two from group 1 and one each from groups 2 and 3. Girls will be allowed to play and they will be made to tee off from the red tees.

All four scores of the players would count for the team total for the day and the PAL Points System or Stableford Scoring System would be used.

PAL has already sent out registration forms to the different golf clubs.

This October 12, the first team captains’ meeting for the 66th PAL Interclub set in February next year will be held at the Mactan Island Golf Club, which will be hosting the tournament alongside Cebu Country Club.

The team captains for the seniors’ interclub will also be attending. The seniors’ event, which is exclusive to those aged 55 years old and above, will be jointly hosted by Alta Vista Golf and Country Club and Club Filipino Incorporada de Cebu.

The Ladies Interclub is set at the historic Iloilo Golf and Country Club in Santa Barbara later this year.

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The country’s top professionals are due back in Cebu on the first weekend of August.

I received my invitation to the media tournament and the email invitation to play in the pro-am event of the Aboitiz Invitational 2012 at Cebu Country Club.

The media tournament, which precedes the press conference, is set on July 30 while the pro-am event is scheduled on August 7.

Last year, I had a memorable experience in the pro-am event as I was in the same team as the tournament’s champion Jay Bayron together with the father and son team of Joey and Joseph Stevens.

Joey passed on earlier this year and he is missed by many members of the golfing community here and in Manila Golf.

What makes this tournament worth looking forward to is the presence of not only the best golfers of the country, but also the up and coming stars of the Asian Development Tour.

Aside from the stars, I also look forward to seeing Cebuanos Charles ‘Chuckie’ Hong, who was a rookie last year. I started writing about chuckie’s golf exploits when he was still a small boy, now he is a professional golfer and I am proud to have seen him develop into the player that he is today.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to my niece Corina Nicole L. Quiñones, Robert Paul ‘Bobby’ Martinez, Boyet Silab, Cavalier Ronald Manahan, and Ritche ‘Tribo’ Salgado, who are all turning a year older today.

Advance greetings to those celebrating tomorrow like VECO’s Ethel Taneo-Natera, Allan Limas, Doreen Dy, junior golfer Sir Cross Abarintos, and my mistahs Leonidas Quinto, Jr. and Neil Gomez.

More power to all of you! - THE FREEMAN