The 71st Fil-Am Invitation Golf Tournament will finally be held from Dec. 14 to 17 at the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay after the go signal from the Inter-Agency Task Force and the city government.
The Fil-Am executive committee has already sent formal invitations to local teams to regroup their members, as this year’s version of the tournament will be limited to residents within the Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay (Blistt) area.
The tournament will only accommodate a maximum of 300 players who will be sprayed in the two courses during the four-day event while the executive committee may invite players outside the Blistt but to be strictly screened based on the guidelines set by the city government.
Each team will field five players but only the four best scores will be counted as a team score.
The executive committee advised all players to strictly comply with the minimum public health standard set by the Fil-Am Foundation.
All players must submit their full vaccination card and they will undergo antigen testing in at least three different occasions. Antigen test will be administered during practice rounds, after the first round, and before the second round.
Those with a positive antigen test result will be subjected to RT-PCR test. Those with positive RT-PCR test result will be automatically withdrawn from the tournament and the team’s entry fee will be refunded.
All caddies during the tournament must also be fully vaccinated while players are not allowed to serve as caddies.
All team captains are solely responsible for dissemination of the tournament rules, especially the Covid-19 protocols to their team members.
The resumption of the Fil-Am tournament will serve as a benchmarking for other tournament organizers in the country, as it will be the first duly authorized golf tournament to be held since the pandemic was declared last year.
As a benchmarking event, the city government of Baguio will also field its own teams composed of players from the government and private sector. – Harley F. Palangchao
