BAGUIO CITY – The Fil-Am Golf Foundation will sponsor a junior golf tournament at the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay golf courses by June next year.
Anthony de Leon, general manager of Baguio |Country Club and co-chairman of the Fil-Am Executive Committee, said that the June 2019 junior golf tournament in the city is part of the Fil-Am Foundation’s bid to develop young golfers into amateur and professional golfers.
He said that part of the proceeds of the 69th edition of the Fil-Am invitational golf tournament that will run from December 1 to 14, 2018 will be used to fund the junior golf tournament.
Shean Bedi, chief operating officer of the Camp John Hay Development Corporation (CJHDevCo), said that some 80 to 100 junior golfers from the different parts of the country are expected to participate in the first-ever junior golf competition in the city by the middle of next year.
The Fil-Am Golf Foundation has been involved in numerous corporate social responsibility projects ranging from environmental preservation and protection, medical-dental missions, relief operations, and others, that contributed in the growth and development of communities in the different parts of the city and neighboring towns of Benguet.
He explained the junior golf tournament will be an individual competition to test the ability of the young golfers to play in the two courses before the organizers will look into the possibility of conducting the event through team competition in the coming years.
De Leon disclosed that the Fil-Am Golf Foundation will continue to look into how it can assist Baguio city in sustaining its robust growth and development with tourism as the major economic driver.
For this year, some 1,300 amateur golfers from the Asia Pacific region will be arriving in the city to participate in the 69th edition of the Fil-Am invitational golf tournament, the longest running amateur golf tournament in the world, which is an added boost to the local tourism industry.
He added the foundation continuously works on programs and projects to sustain the upliftment of the sport of golf in the city so that more individuals can play the game.
Organizers of the Fil-Am invitational golf tournament belied the contention of some individuals that golf is a sport for the rich because everyone can play the sport as long as they learn to love it and they have time to play a round of golf in the available golf courses in the different parts of the city.
According to them, more surprises await the participants in the future staging of the longest running golf tournament in the world to entice more golfers to join the annual event in the city.
By Dexter A. See
