FIELDING will play a major role this year as the Philippine Airlines Ladies Interclub, which tees off on Oct. 4 at chilly Camp John Hay in Baguio, is now set over four days with each player to play just two rounds.
Patterning the tournament to the Seniors division, PAL made a change in the format, making team skippers think more about fielding unlike in the past when one team can go full steam ahead each day.
Eight players make up a team and four will play in a day with only the top three scores counting as Manila Southwoods-Masters shoots to extend its unprecedented reign in the centerpiece Championship Division to six.
Pauline del Rosario, a talent many see as ripe for the pros, will be spearheading SW-Masters, which will miss the services of Abegail Arevalo, last year’s individual champion in Bacolod, next month because of studies in the United States at San Jose State.
Mikhaela Fortuna and Sofia Chabon, a pair of talented teenagers who have had a lot of international success, are the other big guns playing for SW-Masters. The others in the roster are Annika Guangko, Claire Ong, Andrea Pineda, Serafina Kim and the veteran Lora Roberto.
Cebu Country Club and Del Monte will again try to unseat the Carmona-based lasses, with Cebu CC also to miss the services of its top performer last year, Lois Kaye Go, who is also in the US on a golf scholarship.
But that doesn’t mean that Cebu CC doesn’t pack a punch as sisters Irina and Junia Gabasa and Japanese nationals Riko and Ryoko Nagai take the cudgels for CCC.
Mark Kim Hong, Catrina Martinez, Jyra Mae Wong and Crystal Faith Superal-Neri are the others completing the Cebu CC roster.
Del Monte, however, will be parading a relatively unknown team that is being groomed for future success even as a total of 32 teams will be seeing action in four total divisions counting the Founders, Sportswriters and Friendship brackets.
Major sponsors of the 72-hole championship include Solar Entertainment Corp., Airbus, Business Mirror, Mareco Broadcasting Network, People Asia and Manila Broadcasting Corp. Other backers are Philippine Daily Inquirer, Fonterra, Mega Fiber, Mastercard, Tanduay Distillers and Zalora.
