Michael Bibat captured the 2004 individual crown but the Philippines lost to Singapore by two strokes in the team championship, while the RP squad took last year’s team plum but Juvic Pagunsan lost the individual title to local bet Choo Tze-Huang, also by two strokes.
But with Dumandan, the DHL Amateur Open champion, in tip-top form and Bayron raring to strut his stuff, the Philippines is confident of its sweep bid in the annual tournament expected to draw the best players in the ranks.
Dumandan, 27, is coming off a victory in the recent North Orange County Amateur Championship in California, thus making him one of the players to watch in the four-day championship.
The Philippines is actually sending an eight-player delegation in the event although only Dumandan and Bayron are competing in team play and the six others are vying for individual honors. The event starts tomorrow.
They include Gene Bondoc, Anthony Fernando, Eugene Bunyi, Michael Alejandro, Dante Bisera and Bibat. The team’s stint here is sponsored by ICTSI as part of the team’s buildup for the World Amateurs and the Asian Games, sanctioned by the National Golf Association of the Phils., headed here by Susan Facundo, and backed by the Philippine Sports Commission.
"The team is in high spirits and is coming off a series of tournaments abroad. So if they play true to form, we expect them to contend both in the team and individual title hunt," said national team coach Bong Lopez, also the man at the helm of the ICTSI golf program together with fellow mentor Nestor Mendoza.