Depleted Cebu Country Club faces top foes

BACOLOD—With defending champion Cebu Country Club missing two aces that helped in winning a second straight Philippine Airlines Interclub Men’s championship last year, several teams now appear as title contenders when the 67th version tees off Wednesday.

Reigning national champion Lloyd Jefferson Go and Mark Dy, who turned pro late last year, will be out when the Cebuanos gun for a rare three-peat in the country’s unofficial team championship at Binitin and Marapara layouts here.

Go is in a golfing scholarship in the United States, and the hole that he and Dy have left certainly seems big enough that the likes of Alabang, last year’s runner-up in Cebu, and Orchard have become serious title threats.

Del Monte is parading basically the same team that has contended the past several years, while Southwoods will be led by an old face returning after playing in the pro ranks for a while.

Tonlits Asistio, who was a teener when Southwoods slugged it out with Canlubang in memorable down-the-wire battles in the past, makes his return as an amateur and will try to take the Carmona-based squad back to the lofty ranking it once enjoyed.

Andres Saldaña, who will make the jump to the pros next month, will spearhead Alabang, even as Orchard looms as the “sleeper” in the field with a formidable lineup that has former pro Raymund Sangil and the seasoned King Stehmeier.

Alabang is laden with up-and-coming talents that include Basti Lorenzo, Justin Quiban and Gabriel Manotoc, though it will miss the services of Fil-German Keanu Jahns, who will also be trying his luck in the pro circuit.

“We have a pretty good team,” Saldaña, who finished second to Rupert Zaragosa in the 19th WExpress-DHL Am just a few days ago in Laguna, told the Inquirer before their practice round at Binitin in Murcia town.

Marapara will again decide the champion—as what happens every time the events swing to this province—and it would be safe to say that the big guns will be reserved for the final day on Saturday.

Montito Garcia will skipper and play for the Cebuanos, who will also have Carl Almario, Bayani Garcia and many-time club champion Eric Deen

(NOTES: This year’s Interclub is co-sponsored by CrossOver with Boeing, Philippines Graphic, Stargate Media (People Asia) and Rogue as corporate backers.

Also lending support are Airbus, Business Mirror, One Mega Group (Travel Now), Philippine Broadcasting Corp., Manila Broadcasting Corp. and Manila Bulletin.)