Southwoods Invitational golf under way

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Southwoods Invitational, one of the country’s biggest, most awaited member-guest tournaments offering a prize package of more than P5 million, unfolds today with around 275 teams vying for top honors in various divisions at the Legends and Masters courses in Carmona, Cavite.

Presented by Mitsubishi Motors Phils. Corp., Diamond Motors Corp. and Royal Caribbean International/Baron Travel Corp., the premier invitational tournament offers a brand-new Mitsubishi car and Alaska cruise as hole-in-one prizes. And if no one scores an ace on any of the par-3s at the Masters and Legends, the prizes will be raffled off during awards rites on Saturday.

The event is backed by major sponsors Air21, Fil-Estate Land, Inc., Mizuno/TaylorMade, Resorts World Manila and The Address at Wack Wack while The Turf Company/Texas Eagle Golf Cart, Pacsports/Club Car and Pioneer Insurance are the hole-in-one sponsors.

To accommodate the big number of entries, the organizers spread the 36-hole tournament, which will use the Modified Stableford (aggregate) scoring system, to four days with shotgun starts at 7:30 a.m. at the Legends and 8 a.m. at the Masters in the first day of action. Tee off times on Thursday and Friday will be 6:30 a.m. and 12 noon at Legends and 7 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at Masters.

The final day will have the field teeing off at 10 a.m. at the Masters and 10:30 a.m. at the Legends.

The minor/hole sponsors of the tournament are Asia Pacific Golf Corp., Boracay Sands, Camp John Hay Devt. Co., Camp John Hay Golf Club, Castillo Laman Tan Pantaleon Law Offices, CLMC, Dusit Thani Hotel, Foodenizer, Forest Hills Golf and Country Club, Formost Machineries, G&W Clubshares, Gainers, Golden Oats, Golforce, Inc., GRM, IHEC, Kubota, Meridian Equipment Services, Mit-Air, MRT, MSM, PMS, Poblador, Bautista & Reyes Law Offices, Promise Land Trading, RCNA, Series 78, Sherwood Hills Golf Club, SYM Motorbikes, The Manor Camp John Hay, Whealth, Inc. (ABW/Gargol/Cranuti) and Wilson.

The teams will be divided into four groups based on the handicap of the Southwoods’ members while the titles to be disputed are Division I (0-10 handicap), Division II (11-16), Division III (17-22), Division IV (23-above) and the sponsors/guest category.

Members with handicaps of 28 and above will use the maximum of 27 while guests will have a maximum of 18 with the maximum score for each team pegged at 82 points and 42 in the individual per day.