Veteran Plana backstops young S’woods team

BAGUIO CITY—With its top gun failing to make the trip here, Southwoods parades a young roster backstopped by the veteran Jun Jun Plana as it seeks to win the centerpiece Fil Division of the Department of Tourism’s 68th Fil-Am Invitational.

Yuto Katsuragawa, the long-hitting Japanese who spearheaded Southwoods to an 88-point win last year, has academic commitments in Japan and will not be around when the Carmona-based squad tries to reassert its mastery of the elite field.

Instead, the veteran Plana has been recalled from the Am team and will be the steadying force in SW’s Fil squad also made up of young players Tom Kim, Aidric Chan, Carl Corpus and Paolo Wong.

“Yes, we lost some firepower, but the team is playing well,” said nonplaying skipper Jerome Delariarte as Southwoods sees action at Camp John Hay starting Tuesday. “We have a very balanced team that will see action and it will be ready to compete even with Yuto not playing.”

Delariarte sees Royal Northwoods and Forest Hills as the chief threats, with Northwoods to parade a talented lineup led by veteran internationalists Luis Castro and Carlo Villaroman.

Luisita swept the Fil and Am divisions of the Senior event last week, something Southwoods hopes to replicate as former World Junior champ Kristoffer Arevalo spearheads its Am team.

Chepe Dulay, Jama Reyes, GJ Katigbak and reedy Lanz Uy will be the others in the SW’s Am team, which plays at Baguio Country Club in the first two days before winding up at John Hay.

The final 36 holes of Fil play will be played at BBC, where tournament could be won or lost, according to Delariarte.

“Our goal is to turn in scores of 36 points (even par) or close to it as much as possible at BCC,” said Delariarte, a member of three SW champion teams in the 1990s,

“All squads, though, would need a big start at John Hay.”