CEBU. – After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, the Philippine Airlines Interclub starts its reboot here Wednesday with Seniors action, a division usually reserved for players who are calculating and reserved.
This year could be the exception as the 72-hole championship for players aged 55 and above will see four new faces who are used to aggressive play, which could ultimately spell the difference for their respective teams.
Marty Ilagan, who once entertained thoughts of turning pro; Ronnie Littaua, who spearheaded the Forest Hills men’s team for a long time; Carl Almario, a former pro who has innate knowledge of the two courses to be used this week; and Jun Jun Plana, who until the start of the pandemic anchored the highly-successful Manila Southwoods men’s program, will be making their seniors debuts and loom as the players to watch.
Ilagan and Littaua will young blood to the talent-laden Luisita squad, while Almario joins an already loaded Cebu Country Club lineup that put the home squad in the mix as title contender in what is regarded as the country’s unofficial club team championship.
Plana will ditch the old stabilizer role he used to play at Southwoods as he becomes the Carmona-based squad’s tip of the sword in trying to foil another Canlubang-Luisita fight for the title.
“They could provide the big difference,” Cangolf mainstay Tommy Manotoc said of the new faces in their division. “They are longer (hitters) than (the older players), that’s for sure.
And with the tournament playing forward tees, we could expect fireworks.”
Canlubang is the defending champion and is the only team in the Championship division that didn’t tinker with its lineup that also has the steady Abe Rosal and the seasoned Rolly Viray.
“I have no expectations,” Ilagan, a Tarlac native, said. “I will just go out there and help my team the best way I can.”
Alta Vista and Club Filipino will host the tournament, with a number of the veterans expecting the title to be decided in the Danao layout featuring so many blind holes that local knowledge will be a big factor.
The annual event, considered the country’s unofficial national team championship, was shelved for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the 74th staging of the event is supported by platinum sponsors ABS-CBN Global, Asian Journal, Airbus, and Nustar Resort and Casino.
