New rule puts onus on fielding players

Yoyong Velez —PAL PHOTO

CAGAYAN DE ORO—For the first time in 75 years of the Philippine Airlines Interclub’s Regular Men’s tournament, bench depth will not be the biggest thing.

Unlike before when five players come out for a squad each day with the top four scores counting, lean and mean rosters will be the thing at Pueblo de Oro here and nearby Del Monte in Bukidnon as the tournament adopts the four-to-play, three-to-count format similar to what is being used in Seniors play.

Manila Southwoods still comes in as the heavy favorite with a team built around three pro-bound stalwarts led by many-time national player Aidric Chan, but the new format, coupled with each player still only able to play two of the four rounds, makes fielding possibly the most critical element in the tournament.

“I like it because we usually suffered from bench depth before,” Del Monte playing captain Yoyong Velez told the Inquirer as the Bukidnon-based squad took the eve of Friday’s first round off. The first 18 holes will be played at Pueblo de Oro, with the next two to shift at the tree-lined layout inside the vast pineapple plantation in Manolo Fortich town.

“It’s a good format, because teams can field stronger, better players and have lesser chances of having more than one player play a bad round, unlike if you have five out there,” Velez said as Del Monte guns for its first Men’s Championship division title since 2011 and the club’s first sweep.

Aside from Velez, Del Monte will have two more holdovers of that 2011 team playing, counting Romeo Jaraula, the Seniors star who helped key their win last week.

Eastridge, last year’s runner-up in Cebu, and South Pacific of Davao round out the compact field with both squads made up of upcoming junior stars.

Former pro turned successful businessman Gary Sales will be the Eastridge anchor, while Ken Rowell Zonio, a young standout in Mindanao, will be the playing skipper of South Pacific.

Competition in the Founders division is also seen to be tight with Canlubang making its return after five years and joining Cebu CC, Orchard, Del Monte 2 and Wack Wack, among others, in the hunt.