Six expats join cast in DHL Open

Six foreign expats will be joining the homegrown talents in an expected wide open battle for the crown when the sixth DHL-NGAP Amateur Open golf championship starts Tuesday at the Canlubang Golf and Country Club south course.

Low handicappers from Korea (Lee Seong Ki, Koo Tae Hun, Kim Chang We and Mary Kim Hong), Malaysia (Ikram Arshad) and Japan (Katzumi Ono) will seek the glory of becoming the first foreign champion of the national championship.

There are already 64 names in the field led by the country’s reigning national champions — Angelo Que and Aileen Rose Yao.

Yao, a golf scholar at the Cal State Long Beach, just won the Philippine Ladies Open, beating Taiwanese Hung Chin-Huei by a stroke at Wack Wack east.

Que takes over the top seeding from Gerard Cantada who begged off due to a prior commitment.

There are four other ex-national titlists in the cast of the DHL-sponsored event considered as the national stroke play championship: Artemio Murakami, Francis Gaston, Ruby Chico-Walker and Carmelette Villaroman.

Gaston will be marking his return to competitive play after going on a hiatus to manage a shipping company the past few years.

The mainstays of the Canlubang team – Juvic Pagunsan, Solomon Gines, Jun Bernis, Boyet Zaragoza, Rolly Viray, Jimmy Feliciano and Luigi Yulo – are showing up in full force.

The men’s play is for 72 holes while women’s action is for 54 holes.