Fil-Am golf under Covid with strict protocol, less player

November 27, 2021 Metro BLISTT

Hosts Camp John Hay and Baguio Country Club golf clubs will attempt to bring the biggest amateur golf tournament back next month despite the restrictions imposed under the Covid-19 pandemic.
The shortened 71st Fil-Am Golf Invitational Tournament to be staged from December 12 until 17 will follow the minimum health protocol imposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force including antigen tests to be done on the 280 players during the course of the four day tournament and two-day practice rounds.
Newly installed John Hay golf manager Jude Eustaquio said that they will follow IATF health protocol including swab tests for players before hitting the fairways, one during the middle of the tournament and before the final round.
With the practice rounds set on December 12 and 13 and the regular play on the 14th until the 18th, players need to undergo antigen tests on December 12, 15 and 18.
“All of the players as well as our staff must be fully vaccinated 14 days prior the tournament,” said Eustaquio, who played for Forest Hills the past three years before the cancellation of the event last year.
The tournament will only cater to 280 players, 14 teams each for the regular and senior divisions who will play two days each in the venues.
“It will be just like any regular golfing day, where 140 players will play unlike in the Fil-Ams of the past when we have about 200 players in the morning and another 200 in the afternoon,” said Eustaquio, who calls it a breeze in terms of running the tournament.
But the challenge is on following the IATF health protocol as well as the lack of sponsorship.
“We will rely on the minimal fees that will be charged,” said Eustaquio, who was named John Hay golf manager only last September 15. With these, there will be only two side events “and nothing in between”, the opening cocktails on December 13 at the BCC and the awards ceremony dinner on December 18.
And of course both golf clubs stopped operation during the height of the lockdown and although it just recently opened, still lacks the budget to operate at the level before the pandemic.
Moreover, the event will only cater to players from the Baguio-Benguet area and the Cordilleras with a few teams coming from Manila. He added that it will be difficult to turn down players and teams who have been playing in the past, but then with the health protocol, the hosts will have to turn them down.
Eustaquio said that all eyes now are on John Hay and BCC and the Fil-Am as this will surely set the standard in hosting big golfing events in the new normal of a post Covid-19 Philippines.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said earlier that he has urged the Fil-Am executive committee in staging this year’s Fil-Am as Baguio shifts now to re-opening the city to tourists.
He said that city must soon be opened for tourists anytime soon and the Fil-Am will help determine whether the city is ready for it. And of course the economic activity it could bring since the city has been deprived of one of its biggest sources of income in nearly 20 months – tourism.
Pigeon Lobien/ABN