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FOR the
fourth straight year, Manila Southwoods had a
disappointing windup in another runner-up honor in the
Fil championship division of the recent 58th edition of
the Fil-Am Golf Invitational played in Baguio City. But
despite the piling up of second-place finishes, the
Cavite-based squad still created more noise than the
overall champion Club Marinduque.
The buzz was about Manila Southwoods skipper Thirdy
Escaño’s decision not to replace Anthony Fernando, who
played two sizzling days before he headed to Thailand
for the Southeast Asian Games, and stuck with four men
in the five-to-play, four-to-count format of Fil-Am—a
move that surprised many golfers that included Club
Marinduque team captain Tommy Manotoc.
With 2006 Asian Games bronze medalist
Mike Bibat, former national pool players Gene Bondoc and
Tonlits Asistio in his fold, Escaño may have placed too
much confidence in his crew.
However, Manotoc said, that’s just three
and, in the Fil-Am, four scores count for the day.
Therefore, Southwoods’ new recruit and fourth man, Il
Jin Chun, had to come up with big numbers.
During the last two days of the Fil-Am,
Manotoc’s observation came true. Il-Jin, a
Korean-Canadian citizen and reigning Samsung Pilipinas
Amateur Tour champ, only managed 61 out of the possible
72 points that spelled doom for Manila Southwoods.
Still, Manila Southwoods gave Club
Marinduque a good fight. It even cut down the lead after
the first six holes of the final round but lost steam in
the end when fatigue set in which was brought about by
the cold weather and thin air at Camp John Hay.
SPEAKING
of the Camp John Hay Golf Club, general manager Jeric
Hechanova formally introduced Jack Perez as the club’s
new golf director during the Fil-Am tournament.
The 24-year-old Perez is a graduate of
the San Diego Golf Academy (SDGA)—a school which
specializes in producing future managers and caretakers
of golf courses—just like Raymund Bunquin, now the GM of
Sherwood Hills, Raymund Sangil, King Stehmeier, Mike
Cedo, Andrew Ong and Eric Gozo.
Before going to SDGA, Perez earned his
Entrepreneurial Management degree at the De La Salle U
in 2001 because his parents wanted him to pursue a
business-related undertaking. But golf remains a passion
for this former junior golfer that’s why he enrolled in
San Diego.
“I love my job here in John Hay. I’m
learning a lot from Sir Jeric who is a good mentor,”
said Perez, who remembers Asian Tour pro player Artemio
Murakami as a jungolf contemporary back in 1998 to 2000.
A trip
to the Fil-Am event is not complete without partaking of
the famous Baguio longganisa at the Camp John Hay Golf
Club. According to Sunny Visperas of Kork Inc.,
restaurant concessionaire, their stock in the last week
of the tournament had been sold out. In fact, they
requested a relatively high supply of longganisa from
the supplier to meet the demands of the Fil-Am players. |
