Held on February 20, 2019 at The Country Club in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, this year’s 41st PJS Friendship Golf Tournament recorded its highest number of players—80 to be exact—and its first all-ladies team making it an extra special and historical event. The players started arriving as early 5 a.m. to register and prepare for the tournament, which opened with a ceremonial group photo taking before players headed to their respective holes.
“All 72 planned slots were filled up as early as 2nd week of January, which resulted to the Golf Committee opening additional slots to accommodate the strong demand to participate in the tournament,” explained Mr. Joseph Uy, PJS Golf Committee Chairman. “It is also our first year to have an all-ladies team. We usually average only 25 to 30 players all men players in the past,” he added. This year’s all-ladies team was composed of May Uy (Sinag Solutions, Inc.); Hiromi Shimoda (BDO Unibank, Inc.); Masumi Tago (Marubeni Philippines); and Yuko Iyori (Embassy of Japan).
The tournament format was a Scramble (Best Ball) honesty game made up of four-man teams with at least one Filipino or one Japanese member. Each team played alone with no one checking Team scores. Special tournament rules and regulations made the tournament exciting and special strategies required the team to study their individual member’s strengths and weaknesses in order to get the best team scores. Overall, cooperation between all team members was required to win.
Team 18 under the leadership of team captain, Amon Rivera, was declared overall champion with a net 68 which included an eagle on the par 5 Hole Number 10. Team 10B of Fumihiko Harada was the 1st Runner-up with a net score of 69 followed by the 2nd Runner-up team 10A led by Roberto Anonas, Jr. with a score of net 70.
Fun Hole prizes were also awarded during the tournament:
- Longest Drive: Hole #2 – Ishikawa Toshiyuki, 253 yards
- Longest Drive: Hole #8 – Nobuyuki Ariyoshi, 275 yards
- Nearest to the Pin: Hole #11 – Fumihiko Harada, 137 inches
- Nearest to the Pin: Hole #6 – Masahiro Makino, 26 cm
For detailed results and photos of the event, refer to our Resources.
