Huge field sees action in S’woods Invitational golf

MANILA, Philippines - The Southwoods Invitational, Manila Southwoods’ premier member-guest tournament, gets going on April 19-22 with another full-packed roster of club champions and their guests plus a slew of amateur stars clashing for top honors in various categories at the Legends and Masters courses in Carmona, Cavite.

Yuto Katsuragawa, spearhead of Southwoods’ title romps in the PAL Interclub and Fil-Am Invitational, and partner Yoshokazu Hino are expected to lead the huge cast, raring to defend their overall gross title while Claire Ong and Gabby Gaston set out for their defense of the overall net crown in the 36-hole tournament spread over four days.

To accommodate the big number of participants, organizers will use daily shotgun starts at 7:30 a.m. at Legends and at 8 a.m. at Masters on April 19 and 21 and April 20 and 22. Play will be Best Ball for one round at Masters and Aggregate at Legends for the other. Both formats will apply the Stableford scoring system with handicaps where a net double bogey is worth 0, a net bogey 1 point, net par 2 points, net birdie 3 points, net eagle 4 points, net double eagle 5 points and natural hole-in-one six points.

Other titles to be disputed in the event, backed by Platinum sponsors Mitsubishi Motors Phils. Corp./Diamond Motors Corp., Royal Caribbean/Baron Travel, Mit Air and The Turf Co., are Divisions I, II, III and IV and sponsors and guests.

The maximum score for a team in Aggregate play is 82 points and 43 points for individual.

A brand new Mitsubishi car will also be staked as hole-in-one prize on No. 16 of the Legends or No. 17 of the Masters while fabulous raffle prizes will also be given away during awards rites.

Also tipped to defend their titles in the tournament supported by Silver sponsor San Miguel Purefoods Corp. are Lino Magpantay-Raul Magpantay (Division I), Christopher Boutain-Gerald Egasse (Division II), Manolo Agojo-Edcel Opulencia (Division III), Trent Frankum-Derek Ramsay (Division IV) and Alex Ong-Arnel Paras (sponsors/guests).