With Filipinos hogging most of the medals in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games 2019, a lot of hopes are pinned again on the Philippine Golf Team that won two of the four golds won by the Philippines in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
The country won 21 medals total in the AG, which improved our overall finish to 19th place—a marked improvement from the 22nd place we held in the previous 2014 Asian Games edition, but still short of sports officials’ 15th place target.
Thanks to golf, weightlifting (Hidilyn Diaz) and skateboarding (Margielyn Didal), we didn’t go zero in our quest for gold. And now, with the golf tournament under way in the scenic Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac, we are hoping our young golfers deliver again in this gentlemen’s game. All eyes will be on golf from December 4 to 8.
The Philippine women’s team is anchored on Bianca Pagdanganan, who won the gold in Jakarta with Yuka Saso and Lois Kaye Go. Saso has been sidelined by injury this time around and cannot join the team, but Pagdanganan is confident she and her stalwart crew can swing it.
The 22-year-old Bianca is tied for 38th in the 2019 LPGA Q-Series last November, a confidence-boosting development that will work in her and the Philippines’s favor when they face the competition in Luisita. That plus her five amateur wins, with the latest coming from the Hawkeye El Tigre Invitational in March, ought to add to her morale and jack-up her stock.
As for the men’s team, it is made up of Aidric Chan, Carl Corpus, Luis Miguel Castro, and Sean John Ramos. Aidri, a gifted young golfer on scholarship at the University of Arizona (like Pagdanganan and teammate Corpus) is winner of the 2019 IMG Academy Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines in San Diego this July and the first Filipino to win it after 33 years. He was also winner of the Junior Amateur Open Championship, the Riviera MVPSF Amateur Championship and the Northern Luzon Regional Amateur Championship. He had a runner-up finish in the prestigious Callaway Future Champions Golf Championship.
Like Bianca, Aidric is raring to go in the 2019 SEA Games, eager to win a gold for the country. He thinks the Philippines is good for one to four gold medals.
The home team is banking on its advantage of course familiarity and the combined achievements of its individual members. The Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed course with its rugged terrain and rolling fairways has been the site of top-level golf competitions including the Philippine Open in 2015 and is quite a challenge. But tough competition is going to come from the Thai team, especially the women.
Thailand looks to make a clean sweep of four gold medals in the SEA Games. US-based Thanapt Pichaikul from Mississippi State University leads the men’s team while the women’s squad is captained by Atthaya Thitikul who won both team and individual titles at the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia.
The Philippines’s women’s team won bronze in Malaysia courtesy of Lois Go. Thailand won three gold medals, with Atthaya claiming both the women’s team and individual honors. Atthaya is the top amateur in the world.
****
Speaking of golf, DreamBig Events is holding its Gold Series Golf Camp and Tournament at Orchard Golf & Country Club from December 16 to 18.
Headlined as The Road To US College Golf, the DreamBig golf camp will be preceded by the first-ever Future Champions Golf (FCG)-DreamBig Golf Challenger Series on December 16 and 17, a qualifier for the FCG Callaway World Championship. The Winner of each age division in the Orchard tournament will qualify for direct entry to the FCG Callaway World Junior Golf Championship 2020 that will take place at Rancho Mirage, California on July 13 to 15, 2020.
Golf Coaches from topmost schools in the US NCAA Division 1—UCLA (University of California—Los Angeles), Columbia University and UC Berkeley—will run the two-day golf clinic and oversee the two-day FCG Golf Tournament.
Open to all junior golfers aged 12 to 18 years old, interested junior golfers and their parents have a choice of participating in both the tournament and the golf camp, or just one of the two activities.
Akshay Maliwal, DreamBig founder and CEO, explained that the camp opens up the pathway to college golf in the US, which, in turn, will help athletes develop their athleticism and prepare them to compete on the world stage while they become a legitimate part of the US College athletics ecosystem.
“These camps do not just hone young athletes’ skills, they introduce and familiarize athletes with the college recruiting process and lets them experience, even for two days, a day in the life of a college athlete at a top academic and athletic university,” Maliwal added.
Aidric Chan is a Filipino athlete who has been part of the DreamBig program.“Aidric is one Philippines’s most gifted golfers. His future is secure because he has a great academic foundation, given that he is on a scholarship at Uni of Arizona. Representing Philippines at the SEA Games is a great honor for him and solidifies his intention to raise the flag high for Philippines and go for gold! Watch out for this guy, he is one of the hottest golfers in SEA and US college golf. Exciting times ahead!”
Here’s wishing our golfers golden luck all the way to December 8.