Espinoza: Influx of amateur male golfers in Cebu

Espinoza: Influx of amateur male golfers in Cebu

After two years of hiatus brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic that practically afflicted the entire world, the Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub invitational golf tournament has returned with much excitement as indicated by the number of golf clubs, local and international, participating in this year’s competition.

A total of 98 golf clubs are participating in the seniors’ division, while 75 clubs are playing in the men’s regular division that will be played in Alta Vista Golf and Country Club and Cebu Country Club in Cebu City and Club Filipino de Cebu in Danao City.

In the seniors, each team has eight players. So, Cebu is now host to 784 local and international male amateur golfers who will compete in the seniors’ division beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 22 until Saturday, Feb. 25.

The tournament for the men’s regular division starts on March 1. It is a 10-man team competition in a round of 36 holes. Twenty-one of the 75 golf clubs participating in the regular division are international teams from the USA, Canada, Middle East and Malaysia. More or less 1,534 amateur golfers will be in Cebu for this year’s PAL’s invitational golf tournament. For the men’s division, Cebu Country Club and Club Filipino de Cebu will host the four-day tournament.

The 74th PAL Interclub invitational golf tournament was opened on Sunday, Feb. 19 with a ceremonial tee off at Alta Vista Golf and Country Club, which was participated in by PAL officials led by its president, Capt. Stanley Ng, a pilot, and PAL golf tournament chairman Genaro “Bong” Velazquez. Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, pro golfer Bianca Pagdanganan, Alta Vista manager Nimrod Quiñones and myself being the team captain of Club Filipino de Cebu’s senior team also joined the ceremonial tee off.

On Monday, Feb. 20, another ceremonial tee off was conducted in Danao City at Club Filipino de Cebu. It was participated in by Danao City Mayor Thomas Mark “Mix” Durano, PAL’s Velasquez, Danao City Councilor Danny Roble and Club Filipino president Ed Aliño. If my memory serves me right, this is the first time that city officials of the host clubs graced PAL’s separate tee-off ceremonies that signal the start of the competition.

The practice round for the men’s regular team competition is set on Sunday, Feb. 26 before the tournament begins three days later.

Business is brisk in Cebu City’s uptown restaurants and hotel occupancies are back to the pre-Covid-19 pandemic days. Indeed, Mayor Rama, in his speech, delightedly welcomed the holding of PAL’s golf tournament in the city.

In Danao City, Mayor Durano and other city officials were so elated with the PAL golf tournament that for the first time the city officials got involved in repairing the damaged road leading to Club Filipino de Cebu and in providing security for the two-week event through its city police office led by Lt. Col. Fortunato Ecle Jr. Danao City also provided its rescue team composed of paramedics stationed at Club Filipino.

The PAL invitational golf tournament was mostly held in Cebu, Negros Occidental and parts of Mindanao every year before the pandemic happened.

The management of the three host clubs did not hesitate to accept the invitation from PAL because the event is an economic plus factor for the host cities of Cebu and Danao now that we are recovering from the pandemic that almost paralyzed human activities in 2020 until the middle of 2022.

This event has again placed Cebu on the world sporting map.

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