NGAP zeroes in on ‘growing the game’
Photograph by Marc Anthony Reyes for the daily tribune BILLED as the ‘toughest championship course’ in the Philippines, the Luisita Golf and Country Club hosted some of the biggest competitions through the years.
Through the mantra embraced by world governing body of golf — The R&A — the National Golf Association of the Philippines has carried out various post-pandemic programs and events in partnership with golf clubs and charter members aimed at fulfilling this far-ranging goal.
In the last 26 months alone, the NGAP was able to bring back to the country two major events: The APGC Junior Championships and the Nomura Cup.
It also partnered with Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation for the Queen Sirikit Cup.
The Nomura Cup and Queen Sirikit Cup were both hosted by Manila Southwoods with Japan and Korea re-asserting their dominance, respectively, while Chinese-Taipei swept both the boys and girls titles disputed at the APGC Junior Championships held at the Orchard.
"The success of these events were the fruits of our collaboration with external and internal partners which are so crucial in moving forward with our goals," NGAP president Martin Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo said that through the invites sent by the APGC for these events not to mention the Women's Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship and the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, local amateurs making up the national team are given the chance to test their mettle against the emerging talents in Asia.
That task is now being handled by the new national team coach Abe Rosal who is supervising the progress of the national training pool together with Boyet Zaragosa. And funding will be made available to make sure that the country will be well-represented in these multi-nation tournaments.
In the other fronts, the NGAP will also continue to collaborate with charter members like the Women's Golf Association of the Philippines to pursue their own projects the way they did with the Queen Sirikit Cup for the coming year. The WGAP has seen its roster grow by leaps and bounds and have put a series of events in its calendar in place.
Together with the WGAP and the Philippine Sports Commission, the "Ready, Set, Golf" grassroots program was also launched to introduce the game to a larger audience and foster quality time for families.