Avena banners 6-man PH squad in senior golf tourney

A Philippine team that will be missing two of its best players in the ranks remains in high spirits as it guns for the Asia-Pacific Senior Amateur Golf Championship starting today at posh Alabang Country Club.

Reigning national champion Abe Avena spearheads a six-man team that will try to gatecrash what many feel would be a two-cornered fight between powerhouses New Zealand, winner of the last two editions, and Australia.

The Filipinos will try to do it sans Eddie Bagtas, the defending individual champion, and old reliable Tommy Manotoc.

“This will be a fighting team,” Avena told the Inquirer over the phone after the team’s final practice round yesterday at the Robert Trent Jones-designed layout that has its hard greens as last line of defense.

Benjie Sumulong, Mari Hechanova, Rolly Viray, Alan Alegre and former Philippine Sports Commission Chair Richie Garcia are the other members of the team.

Bagtas, the former pro who has been the Luisita team’s pillar in the PAL Interclub the last three years, is curiously not in the team, while Manotoc, a two-time individual champion who placed third in the Hong Kong Open last week, begged off because of a bruised rib cage.

Manotoc, now 67, anchored the PH squad that last won this event in 2007 over Australia. —Musong R. Castillo