PAL Interclub: only one of its kind in the world

Jovi Neri, one of Cebu Country Club’s top golfers, described the 66th PAL Interclub this way: “The tournament is unique because it is the only one of its kind in the whole world. No interclub golf team tournament in the world has a history this rich or a field this big. It will feature almost 200 teams and over 1,500 golfers from all over the world — all coming to Cebu for two weeks, which boosts the city’s exposure, tourism and economy. It’s not only a showcase of the host courses, but for the whole Cebu. Golfers have been wanting to come back since we last hosted in 2002.”

For Jovi and his Cebu Country Club (CCC) teammates, the Interclub is special not just because they’re “playing for CCC,” but because they all grew up in CCC and have been on the Banilad greens since they were children. “There is a shared heritage among us,” he said. “CCC has been part of our lives the same way we have been part of it. That makes our team unique and not a lot of other teams can say the same.”

MARKO SARMIENTO. The reigning CCC men’s champion, Marko Sarmiento agrees, saying: “CCC treats this tournament different from the other participating clubs since this is the only team competition that we enter. Other Manila clubs have team tournaments like the Federation which is played all year round and the Fil-Am. For one week, we play as a team and our teammates rely heavily on each other to perform well. This is the main reason why the pressure from this event is unlike any other.”

The 66th PAL Interclub is classified under four divisions: Championship, Founders, Sportswriters, and Friendship. For the first time ever, Team CCC won the premier Championship division last year in Davao when it beat Del Monte Golf Club. Thus, the added pressure — especially because Cebu is hosting.

“The Men’s division will start on Wednesday and will be played on 2 courses: CCC and Mactan Island Golf & CC. Play in Mactan is instrumental since it’s a difficult course that not many have practiced in. What makes the course difficult are the conditions of play, especially the tricky greens,” said Marko.

Each team has 10 players. Except for Gio Gandionco, who is in the U.S. for golf scholarship, all nine players are returning.

Are we favored to win? Yes and no. “We’ll be favored since this partially in home turf,” said Atty. Neri. “In other sports, hosts depend on crowd support to give them home-court advantage but the courts are still all regulation size and length. In golf, all courses are different so familiarity is really a playing advantage. However, CCC is only the venue for 2 of the 4 days, and the other 2 is in Mactan, which is neutral ground. So while observers call CCC as the favorites, rivals are just as strong, especially Del Monte and Alabang, which finished 2nd and 3rd last year.”

Gio’s replacement is my next-door neighbor, Andre Borromeo. Thrice a member of CCC’s Founders (champion) team, Andre qualified after a grueling 72 hole qualifier vs JJ Alvarez.

Top players? Says Marko, who’s joining his 12th PAL tournament: “We will again be led by our two young guns, Gen Nagai (2hdcp) and LJ Go (+1 hdcp: the only plus handicapper in CCC).”

NIMROD QUINOÑES. Over at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club – which hosted the Seniors Division — I asked one of my closest friends, Nimrod Quiñones, to comment on the impact for Cebu.

“PAL Interclub is not just for the golf clubs. We have a total of 800 players for the seniors and another 800 for the men’s tournament for a total of 1,600. That is still excluding their companions. If a player spends just a minimum of P20,000 here while taking part in the tournament, that is P32 million that is pumped into the economy of Cebu.

“Since this is my 20th PAL Interclub playing various roles as sportswriter, photographer, thrice as participant, once as team captain, and several times playing in the media tournament, now as GM of a host club, I know that players spend so much more than P20,000 each.

This is sports tourism at its finest moment.”