Champ leads cast in DHL Open golf

Reigning Philippine amateur champion Artemio Murakami will lead a team of crack Southwoods bets competing in the fifth DHL-NGAP Amateur Open golf championship slated Jan. 18-21 at the north course of the Canlubang Golf and Country Club in Laguna.

Murakami, who at 16 became the youngest winner of the Philippine Amateur last year at Wack Wack by beating national player Angelo Que in the finals, will try to complete a sweep of the country's two major diadems in the 72-hole event conducted by the National Golf Association of the Philippines in cooperation with DHL Philippines.

Aside from Murakami, the other members of the Southwoods team that won the PAL Interclub and the Fil-Am in Baguio will also see action.

They are Chucho Martinez, Gerome Delariarte, Jun Jun Plana, Cookie La'O, Juami Rocha and Hanson So Jr.

There are already 30 players with handicaps of seven or lower in the roster, including provincial entries from Bacolod, Davao, Cebu and Zamboanga.

The provincial bets are led by the topnotchers of the regional eliminations -- Ruperto Zaragoza, Jr. and Manuel Edward Grandeza of Apo, Davao and Alex Montelibano and Chris Infante of Bacolod.

Travel expenses of the four qualifiers will be shouldered by DHL Philippines, according to tournament chair Iggy Clavecilla.