NGAP slams Erap golf ‘offer’

Now it can be told.

The Erap Golf Foundation, which organizes the annual Erap Cup, demanded six seats in the board of directors of the National Golf Association of the Philippines in exchange for $200,000 which the NGAP needed to stage this year’s Philippine Open golf championship.

NGAP president Rod Feliciano made official yesterday what has been going around in the golfing circle as early as last month that officials of the Erap Golf Foundation made such an outrageous offer in a bid to gain control of the country’s governing body for golf.

"We are not paid people. We are elected and what they want is illegal because the NGAP has a constitution and by-laws to follow," said Feliciano during the re-launching of the Philippine Open yesterday at the EDSA Plaza Hotel.

It was the second time in two months that the RP Open, regarded as the country’s premier golfing event, was launched although unlike last month, when it was touted to be a $200,000 tournament with foreign participation, it is now reduced to a P2 million event after the NGAP rejected the Erap Golf Foundation’s offer.

It will still be played Nov. 23-26 at Riviera’s Langer Course in Cavite although the organizers said the foreign players are still welcome to join the 72-hole tournament but they will have to settle for the local money purse.

With no title sponsor, Feliciano, also the courier service DHL president, said they are pushing through with the event through the help of long-time Open backer Mitsubishi Motors, MOF Co., Inc., Nextel Phils., UBIX, Thai Airways, Mizuno, Philippine Wine Merchants, Philippine Sports Commission, Zurich Phils., Sunrise Holiday Concepts, The Riviera, and Airlift Asia, Inc. which will sponsor the traditional pro-am event on Nov. 22.

NGAP secretary-general Freddie Masigan, who with Feliciano and NGAP vice president Benny Gopez met with Erap Cup officials Enrique Razon and Susing Pineda last September at the Manila Golf Club, labelled the demand as "blackmail" although he doubted if President Estrada was aware of the offer made by the officials of his foundation.

The NGAP, forced to hold the event late in the year after a misunderstanding with the Asian PGA Tour, had sought the help of the President last month and requested for financial assistance from the government agencies like the Pagcor, PCSO and the Philippine Tourism Authority with the Chief Executive delegating the matter to the Erap Golf Foundation.

However, it will be the local pros who will benefit from the all-local RP Open since they will have to contend with themselves for the top P400,000 purse, especially with only one tournament, the Konica-UBIX Open on Nov. 18-21 at Wack Wack, being lined up before the event. The last time that an all-Filipino RP Open was staged was in 1986 when Mario Manubay won at Villamor.

Since then, the RP Open has lured top players from other countries, including those in Europe and the United States, until it emerged Asia’s most prestigious championship that rivalled those other rich events in the region.

This year’s Open, now on its 85th year, was earlier scheduled in February but was moved to October following a rift between the NGAP and the Asian PGA. The Erap Golf Foundation then asked for a postponement to give it more time to raise the total purse.

But in an all-local field, Cassius Casas is expected to have an inside track to the top purse since he has dominated the local circuit in the last three years, although it will be a different scenario if ever Frankie Minoza gets to make himself available for the Open week.

Minoza is believed to have committed himself in the rich Casio Open, slated in the week of the RP Open, while Casas will be coming fresh from a stint in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand.