DAVAO—Del Monte, with two of its stars set to turn pro in less than a week, opens defense of its Philippine Airlines Interclub Men’s championship division crown starting Wednesday at the Rancho Palos Verdes layout here.
Definitely the hands-on picks to repeat, the Bukidnon-based bets will be led by Banny Abano and former national champion Clyde Mondilla as the squad seeks its third centerpiece crown and first away from home this week.
Cebu Country Club, the surprise runner-up last year, and Negros Golf and Country Club, which will have amateur standouts Justin Limjap and the veteran JR Tanpinco, are the other two squads tipped to crowd Del Monte.
Looming as the darkhorse is Wack Wack, the exclusive club in Mandaluyong which recruited Tommy Manotoc and sons Matthew and Gabriel after their mother squad Canlubang took an authorized leave this year.
“I still think that it’s a wide open race,” said Del Monte skipper Yoyong Velez. “There are a lot of good teams out there.”
Fielding will again be a premium in the four-day event, with most teams likely to field their aces when action shifts to heavily wooded Apo Golf tomorrow.
The Rancho Palos Verdes layout is the better manicured between the two. Most of the big guns are expected to neutralize each other there, compared to Apo Golf, which is now playing longer because of sogginess.
Traditionally, Apo Golf decides the champion, much in the same way that it did in the Senior division on Sunday when only the elder Manotoc managed to come close to matching par in the final day where scores ballooned big time.
Mondilla could be made to see action for Del Monte in the first round with his length, and considering how wide open the fairways in Palos Verdes are, as a primary weapon.
Abano is the more methodical of the two Del Monte superstars, and with Apo Golf resembling their homecourse in a way, Abano could again come up as the best scorer for the squad for the second straight year.
Canlubang, which produced such pro stars as Juvic Pagunsan, Jay Bayron and Jonel Ababa, begged off from playing this year after most of its players from last year’s squad opted to turn professional.
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