BAGUIO CITY – Some 1,300 amateur golfers in the Asia Pacific region will be joining this year’s 69th staging of the prestigious Fil-Am invitational golf tournament which will be simultaneously held at the Baguio Country Club (BCC) and Camp John Hay (CJH) fairways here from December 1-15, 2018.
Tim Allen, general manager of the Camp John Hay Golf Club and co-chairman of the Fil-Am Executive Committee, said this year’s participating golfers will be the largest so far in the history of the longest running amateur golf tournament in the world considering that the 1,300 golfers will be playing for some 250 teams that were registered for this year’s competition.
The ceremonial tee off for the seniors and the newly created super seniors divisions will be on Friday, November 30, 2018 before the formal competition that runs From December 1-6, 2018 while the ceremonial tee off for the regular championship divisions will be on Sunday, December 9, 2018 prior to the competition that will be from December 10-15 in both golf courses in the city.
Both BCC and John Hay courses are ready for the annual staging of the tournament. The recent onslaught of the month-long monsoon rains in August, the wrath of Tropical Cyclone Ompong in September aggravated by the wrath of Tropical Cyclone Rosita last month served as a challenge in the preparation of both courses for the Fil-Am,” Allen stressed.
BCC general manager Anthony de Leon announced that the golf cart paths for its front 9 will be completed in time for the start of the tournament aside from the fact that sufficient number of golf carts will be delivered in the only exclusive club in the city for the use of the golfers wanting to use the carts while playing.
He said that by next year, all the required golf cart paths for its 18-hole golf course will be completed to provide convenience to golfers when playing in the challenging BCC course.
“We will continue to innovate the annual conduct of the Fil-Am invitational golf tournament so that we will be able to entice more foreign and local teams to join the competition,” de Leon stated.
For this year, there will be some 91 teams that will be joining the seniors division, 154 teams will be entered in the regular championship flights while there will be 5 teams that will be starting the cast for the super seniors division.
Organizers revealed that those who will be composing the super seniors division teams should be at least 70 years old at the start of the competition wherein separate tee boxes will be designated for them in both courses.
The designated holes for the successful hole-in-one players will be hole No. 10 in BCC and the 170-yeard hole No. 18 in John Hay wherein organizers will be giving away a Toyota Rush for each of the designated hole-in-one holes for each of the divisions.
Last year, there were some 1,250 amateur golfers who composed the 247 teams that participated in the 18-day tournament which was done in both major golf courses in the city.
Practice rounds for the super seniors and seniors divisions will be from November 28-30, 2018 while participants to the regular championship flights will have their practice rounds in both courses from December 7-9, 2018.
By Dexter A. See
