The senior golfers in a group photo. – FADHIL YUNUS
A TOTAL of 33 senior golfers from Brunei Darussalam Association will be participating in the 34th Asean Senior Amateur Golf Championships at the Eagle Ridge Golf & Country Club, Barrio Javalera, General Trias, Cavite, Philippines from October 18 to 20.
Brunei Darussalam Association of Senior Golfers (BDASG) will be represented in the tournament which also includes five other Asean country golf associations – Thailand Senior Golfers’ Association (TSGA), Indonesian Senior Golfers’ Society (ISGA), Federation of Philippines Amateur Senior Golfers’ Inc. (FPASGI), Senior Golfers’ Society of Malaysia (SGSM) and Singapore Senior Golfers’ Society (SSGS).
Some 256 golfers from the six Asean countries including Brunei Darussalam are expected to take part in the tournament which will be officiated by Governor Boying Remulla.
The championship will have two separate competitions namely stroke play and Stableford play.
Stroke play competition will be played over three rounds of 18 holes while Stableford competition will be played over two rounds of 18 holes.
Participants will play in either the stroke play or Stableford play competition and not in both. The stroke play competition will comprise of a team and individual.
The individual championship will be a competition over 54 holes for gross and net play. The team championship will be for the team of four players representing their association for team gross and net play.
The golfing individuals and teams will be vying for the five prestigious championship trophies namely the Sallahudin Challenge Trophy for the Best Gross Individual over 54 holes; Mondonedo Challenge Trophy for the Best Net Individual over 54 holes; Henry HS Lee Challenge Trophy for the Team Gross over 54 holes; Zakir Challenge Trophy for Team Nett over 54 holes; Toh Shung Chee Trophy for Best Stableford Score Individual over 36 holes.
The latest trophy additions are from the Thai Senior Golf Association called the Chamnian Pongpairojana Challenge Trophy and the Brunei Darussalam Association of Senior Golfers produced the Overall Challenge Trophy called the Lela Pahlawan Trophy donated by Pehin Orang Kaya Lela Pahlawan Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Mohd Jaafar bin Haji Abdul Aziz.
About 10 per cent of the players are 75 and above which is equivalent to 23 out of 256 players. The highest number taking part in the Group E age grouping is Thailand with six followed by Malaysia with five, Indonesia and Brunei with four and Philippines and Singapore with two.
The tournament first started when a group in 12 people met in Jakarta in the 80s who are known to be golfing enthusiasts and are seniors aged 55 and above.
Melito Salazar, President of the Federation of Philippines Amateur Senior Golfers’ Inc said the group felt that it was good to have a group of golfers from Asean countries to play together to foster greater friendships and bonding.
They invited other institutions in the region to join and today there is the Confederation of Asean Senior Golfers’ Association (CASGA) which is represented by six countries. This year, Philippines are hosting the tournament after Malaysia declined and fittingly it is also coincided the same year as the Asean chairmanship which Philippines play host.
