Pinoy golfers compete in Faldo Series Asia final

Brent Sumampong of the ICTSI golf team and three other Filipino amateurs are all set to compete in the 2010 Faldo Series Asia Grand Final beginning Wednesday at the Faldo course of the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China. The three-day tournament is the project of golf great Nick Faldo for his charity, the Faldo Trust for Tomorrow’s Champions (Asia) Limited, which has support of The R&A and endorsement of Asian Tour and Asia Pacific Golf Confederation. Sumampong, who topped the boys’ 21-and-under division in the inaugural Faldo Series Philippine Championship in Tat Filipinas, will tee off in the company of Yao Xue-feng of China and Soe Moe Win of Myanmar.

“I’m pretty excited to go to China. It will be a big tournament outside of the country. I hope to relax and enjoy and not have that overwhelming feeling that might add pressure to me," said Sumampong before he left for Shenzhen. Also seeing action are Jobim Carlos (boys’ 18-and-under), Bino dela Paz (boys’ 16-and-under) and petite lady Irina Gabasa (girls’ division). Carlos starts with Joon Lee of South Korea and Nacha Patchana of Thailand while Dela Paz is in the flight of Joshua Ho of Singapore and Tawit Polthai of Thailand. Gabasa, RP’s lone entrant in the distaff side, is bunched with Shi Yu-ting of China and Lee Ji-woo of South Korea. Among the foreign contenders are England’s Jonathan Bell, the 19-yeard-old who won the Faldo Series European Grand Final played in the Olympic city of Rio de Janeiro back in October, Gavin Green, the 2009 Malaysian Closed Amateur champion, and Rashid Khan from India, the 2008 and 2009 Faldo Series Asia champion. The fourth Faldo Series Asia Grand final will be played under strict tournament conditions over three rounds on the Faldo Course. Boys and girls will play from different tees with the Faldo Series Asia challenge trophy to be presented by Faldo himself to the player with the lowest gross score, boy or girl. Players will also be receiving expert advice and support from Faldo himself as well as other guest speakers during the tournament week. Tuesday’s player seminar focused on working with sponsors and creating a personal brand image, on and off the course. The five age-category winners – three boys and two girls – will be invited by Faldo to compete in the 2010 Faldo Series European Grand Final to be staged over at the Faldo Course at the Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland on September 21-23. The overall Asian champion, boy and girl, will also be invited to play in a flagship event on the Asian Tour and the Ladies European Tour, respectively. Likewise, the Faldo Series Asia will be initiating a number of grassroots activities around the Grand Final as part of its bid to create simultaneous access to the sport for a wider and younger audience. This includes support of the Mission Hills Junior Tour, which has been launched to provide opportunities to junior golfers of all means, aged nine and upwards, and will act as an official feeder to Faldo Series Asia tournaments in China, including the Grand Final for its overall boys and girls champions. – Adrian Flores, GMANews.TV