THE MERRY mix of homegrown players and overseas-based Filipino aces competing in the Putra Cup at Sherwood Hills later this month will try to justify their national team slots when they see action in the Philippine Amateur Closed championship starting tomorrow.
The 72-hole event presented by the MVP Sports Foundation is also set at Sherwood Hills, now the official home of the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines and venue of Southeast Asia’s official team golf championship.
Rico Hoey and elder sister Simone will play on Philippine soil for the first time and are listed as among the top contenders in the tournament that is part of the PLDT Group Amateur Tour and backed by Pancake House, Nike, Golf Depot and Pacsports.
Jobim Carlos and Rupert Zaragosa, former teammates at Canlubang in the PAL Interclub, ICTSI spearhead Princess Superal and Regina De Guzman are the other big names seeing action. De Guzman and Carlos are on a break from school in the United States.
“This is the most talented, most star-studded Philippine Am we will be having in years,” said NGAP president Tommy Manotoc, who was responsible for recruiting the Hoeys to play for the country in the Putra Cup, slated June 27 to 30.
“We are excited not just for the Philippine Am, but for the Putra Cup as well,” added Manotoc, a mainstay of several champion PH Putra teams in the past. “It’s been a while since we won that event.”