Asia-Pacific jungolf rites up at Southwoods

Representatives of the 12 competing nations will gather at the New World Hotel today for the simple opening rites of the inaugural Asia-Pacific Junior Golf Masters set Dec. 10-13 at the Legends course of the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in Carmona, Cavite.

The affair will start at 6:30 p.m. with top officials of the Asia-Pacific Junior Golf Confederation and the organizing Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines expected to be on hand for the event also meant to welcome and brief participants on the tournament schedule.

A total of 54 players are seeing action in the five-day multi-nation tourney which has gathered the best junior players around the region including two promising teeners from Illinois and California of the United States.

The Philippine contingent of Jayvie Agojo, Marites Salivio, Gerileen Handog, Lawrence Negrido, Justin Limjap, Miko Alejandro and Jasper Braga will be out to protect national pride in the event.

The other countries seeing action are Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and the United States, in the event supported by the Department of Tourism and Manila Southwoods with New World as the official hotel.

Thailand and Korea are tipped to be the strongest threats in the Masters featuring players 17 years and below.

Amalia Montecillo and Merwin Mediana, chair and president of Jungolf, said that they hope to make the Masters as a showcase for more international jungolf events to be held in the country.

"We’ve not hosted an international jungolf event for quite sometime now. We hope to get as much goodwill from our neighbors as we try to make their stay here memorable," they said.

The foreign entries:

Chinese-Taipei (H.Y. Tseng, S.K. Lo, M Chen, M.H. Chen, Y.N. Tseng, K Lu, H Lu); Hong Kong (J. Ming Chak, E. Hoi Ning); India (R. Singh, A. Singh, K. Vasudeva, J. Dullet, M. Taiwar, N. Majithia, M. Halwasiya); Indonesia (T. Hermanto, Z. Sitompul, Z. Tabusalla, A. Sudjasmin, C. Chudivan, Rahmawati); Japan (K. Sato, T. Shinohara); Korea (K Hoi, P.Y. Ik, O.S. Min, L.H. Seung); Malaysia (K.B. Kemarol Huda, A.H. Hassan, A.J. Abu Bakar, D. Kunesakran, V.T. Kim Leng); Pakistan (D. Jehangir, H. Talmur Amin, O. Javed, M. Khan); Singapore (F. Tan); Thailand (E. Walsayakul, C. Phadungsil, A. Hiranratanakorn, A. Songserm, S. Kasemsamran, P. Chutichai, P. Phatium); United States (C. Sainz, E. Vicencio).