CARMONA - The Philippine Open will play the biggest version of its 108-year existence starting on Thursday, and no man - and agency - is prouder than Al Panlilio and the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) for making this happen.
With $1 million (around P64 million) at stake this week, this edition being held at Manila Southwoods Masters for the second straight year holds the biggest pot this tournament has ever dangled as the oldest national Open in the Asian Tour.
After reviving the Open last year as NGAP chair, the legacy of the 63-year-old Panlilio's involvement in sports is such, as he was also at the forefront of the Philippines' hosting of the Fiba World Basketball Championship a few years back when he still headed the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, Inc (SBP).
READ Southwoods turns Masters into a par-70, grows rough for PH Open
A former basketball player at Ateneo before becoming a golf nut in his much-documented corporate life, Panlilio is serving the first year of his two-year term as NGAP president, vowing to rally the local golf community behind a national team program he wants to revive, through, among others, the National Training Center (NTC)
"That's the ultimate plan, the legacy I want to leave at the NGAP - this will be a game-changer for the sport," said Panlilio as he bared the rise of an NTC where players of Philippine team potential will get the chance to practice and be coached there for high-level play.
While with the SBP, Panlilio and other stakeholders of the sport banded together to make the Gilas Pilipinas program as solid as it can be, and the result three World Cup appearances, a first Asian Games basketball gold in six decades, and a sustained drive to make it back to the Olympics again.
"The NTC for golf will make sure that our national athletes are well-taken care of," Panlilio said. "Our target would be to make sure that the Philippines returns to being the yardstick in our region and to make Olympics stints in golf a regular fare."
Funding would be a critical part of that plan, and the first master stroke for Panlilio and the NGAP was to channel most of the additional fees they charge for handicapping earlier in the year into the PH team program.
"There's no better way to do that than make every golfer in the country as stakeholders," he said. "And we at the NGAP will be responsible in making that happen. We will be answerable to our stakeholders. That's why we want to make the national team click again."
Meanwhile, Panlilio has his focus on the Open and will be cheering on a local bet to win at the Masters as he tries to make the event as prestigious and lucrative in the coming years by entering into a partnership with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) through chairman Patrick Gregorio.
"We will definitely hold it again next year and beyond," Panlilio said. "We will try our best to make it bigger because this tournament is held in such high regard because of its history."
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
