Amateur Golf Championship fires off today at the North Course of the Canlubang golf complex in Laguna with a spirited battle for top honors in both the men’s and women’s divisions expected given the depth of the competing field.
Yuto Katsuragawa headlines a stellar cast that includes Ira Alido, Kristoffer Arevalo, Luis Castro, Aidric Chan, Carl Corpus, Dan Cruz, Weiwei Gao, Jolo Magcalayo, Ryan Monsalve, Carlo Villaroman and former national champion Ruperto Zaragosa while Yuka Saso, Harmie Constantino and Pauline del Rosario tipped to slug it out in the distaff side of the annual event held in honor of the late golf patron Rod Feliciano, who also served as president of the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines.
Also tipped to contend for this year’s crown in one of NGAP’s flagship tournaments held as part of the PLDT Group National Amateur Golf Tour and backed by the MVP Sports Foundation, Cignal and Metro Pacific Investments are Matthew Abalos, Eric Gallardo, Josh Jorge, GJ Katigbak, Perry Bucay, Marc Lu, Lester Lagman, Aniceto Mandanas, Carlo Quimson, Pierre Ticzon and Paolo Wong.
A slew of foreign bets are also in the fold, including Koreans Hyeon Seung Back, Tommy Jeong, Kim Joo Hyung, Kim Jun Sik, Won Yong Hwi and Kim Yeon Hab, Japanese Koji Yasuma and Kai Yasuma, Luke Barblan of Vietnam and Marc Newman of United Kingdom.
Saso looms as the player to beat owing to her string of victories, including a wire-to-wire triumph in the Philippine Amateur at Riviera last month.
But the Fil-Japanese ace will be facing a formidable set of challengers, headed by former national champion Constantino and the crack The Country Club team led by former Thailand Ladies Amateur Open winner del Rosario.