Pro-am chase for P1-M purse on

SILANG, Cavite – Defending champion Noli Kempis and Erwin Vinluan will open their title-retention bid against a slew of top-rated teams when the P1-million U-Bix Riviera National pro-am golf championship unwraps today at the sleek Couples layout of the Riviera Golf and Country Club course.

Kempis and Vinluan won this event last year in a thrilling finale with the father-and-son duo of Juanito and Juvic Pagunsan and they may run into the same kind of opposition against the fancied teams in the four-day event.

Expected to figure prominently in the championship, a revival of the one-ball twosome alternate shot event made famous by the old military course of Fort Bonifacio, are the pairs of Peter and Raul Miñoza of Del Monte, Caloy Nival and Jun Bernis and the Riviera teams of John Blanch-Eric Gozo and Lewis Rissman-Bobby Celestino.

The Wack Wack team of Marlon Dizon, who had a big start in his maiden crack at the local circuit as a pro, and Bones Floro, Valley’s Cesar Ababa and amateur partner Philip Tanchi could be a force to reckon with, too.

The tournament officially began Tuesday with the hitting of ceremonial drives just before the start of the 18-hole Celebrity Pro-Am event.

U-Bix president Bert Bravo drove first. Next was Konica Asia’s Mitsuhiro Hasegawa, followed by NGAP vice president Vice Admiral Luisito Fernandez and NGAP secretary-general Benny Gopez.