52nd Fil-Am international golf attracts record field

A record field of 920 players paid entry fees to join the historic 52nd Fil-Am Men’s International Golf Tournament on Dec. 3-8 at Camp John Hay (CJH) and Baguio Country Club (BCC) in Baguio City.

CJH manager Heiner Maulbecker and BCC manager Anthony de Leon, co-chairmen of the tournament, however, said that only 620 of the 920 entries were accommodated to ensure quality play, more fun and fellowship among the golfers in the 72-hole golf event presented by Smart Communications and Ericsson.

The challenging par 69, 5,001-yard championship golf course of CJH and the fabulous par-61, 4,038-yard scenic course of BBC are the venues of the Fil-Am Golf Tournament, acknowledged as the biggest amateur golf tournament in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Defending champion CAP – Southwoods, aiming for a three-peat, heads the cast of teams. The team is beefed up with players Angelo Que, Jerome Delariarte, Juami Rocha, Toru Nakajima, Montito Garcia, Jun Jun Plana, Artemio Murakami and Hanson So.

Canlubang, Fil-Am’s successful club with 11 championships, will not be around this year. Last year’s runner-up Calatagan and third placer Wack Wack will also skip the tournament.

According to Fil-Am overall coordinator Shean Bedi, teams who will try to stop Southwoods’ title run are Mizuno – Master Sports, Master Sports – St. Luke’s, Capitol Hills and Forest Hills.

"Fresh from topping the championship of the 2001 Federation League Series last week, the Antipolo-based parbusters of Forest Hills are in high spirits and are gearing up for the Fil-Am tournament, drawing motivation and spiritual strength from their top player, the late Alfie Almario," said Bedi.

As in previous years, the tournament format is five-to-play with the best four scores to count from the day’s tour, using the PAL Stableford scoring system.

Information Professionals Inc. (IPI) has been tapped to provide an adequate computerized scoring system linking both CJH and BCC. Their system will ensure updated score sheets in 15 minutes after each round, complete with analysis on the players’ performance.