BENGUET'S golfing pride Luigi Paolo Wong is set to don the Philippine colors anew.
Wong will represent the country in the upcoming 2019 Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championship slated June 14-22 to be played at the Chukyo Golf Club in Toyota City, Nagoya, Japan.
In a letter from the Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines (JGFP), Wong will be travelling together with the Philippine Junior golf Team headed by director Judeo Chan who was designated as the team captain.
"We sincerely look forward for your participation to this very prestigious world championship event which is first for the Philippine Boys Junior Teams after making the Asian qualifier in Korea last September 2018," wrote JGFP president Nikki Ng.
The weeklong competition will be participated by junior parbusters from Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Japan, USA, and other countries from North and Central America, Caribbean Region, and Africa.
The Toyota Junior Golf World Cup is the world's only junior golf championship in which 24 international teams qualified to participate where over 70 different national teams competed in six different continents, in order to compete for the honor as world champion.
In addition to the international competition, the tournament committee's goal is to assist in developing junior golf for future of this global game.
In January this year, Wong has signed a scholarship grant to study and play for the San Jose State University Spartan’s Men Golf team in California, U.S.A.
SJSU men’s golf coach John Kennaday, in a letter dated January 10, 2019, officially informed the 18-year-old Wong of La Trinidad, Benguet that the Spartan family is officially welcoming him in its roster.
The Spartan Men’s Golf team, Kennaday said, has enjoyed a rich legacy of hardworking competitors and champions, who have laid a strong foundation for its student-athletes.
The Spartans Golf Team was the 1948 champion in the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association and has made more than 50 NCAA team appearances since 1947.
The team also produced two champions, Bob Harris in 1948 and Terry Small in 1964, while it is proud of its 1964 U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi.
Wong is the first young golfer from Benguet who won in the qualifying tournament of the prestigious IMG Academy Junior World, qualifying him for the Junior World Golf Championships in San Diego, California at age 15.
Wong, who started to play golf at 10 and also a 2nd dan black belt in taekwondo, was also part of the Philippine Golf Team who represented the country in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia, bringing home a team bronze medal. (Roderick Osis)