A FOUR-cornered battle among defending champion Thailand, Australia, Japan and Korea looms, with the host Philippines out to pull off a surprise in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Team Championship, also known as the Nomura Cup, that tees off today at the Masters course of the Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club in Carmona, Cavite.
Thailand returns to the Nomura Cup five years since ending its search for a breakthrough victory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a rookie-laden squad bannered by Pongsapak Laopakdee, a member of the last Junior Presidents Cup International team.
Japan is eyeing its second win in the last three staging of the biennial event, pinning its hopes on Yuta Sugiura who, at No. 32, is the highest rated player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings with Minato Oshima and Riura Matsui as his backups.
A perennial title contender, Korea fields Yubin Jang, Hyun Uk Kim and Dong Hyun Moon and is expected to make another good run at the title it won for the first and only time when it hosted the Nomura Cup in 2009.
The Koreans are actually paired with the Philippine trio as well as Hong Kong in the first three flights in the opening round of the event.
The local campaign will be bannered by Kristoffer Arevalo, Elee Bisera and Coby Rolida, with Bisera and Rolida out to make their national team debuts a memorable one before a hometown crowd.
Arevalo and Rolida both call Southwoods home and hope to translate their familiarity with the course into a distinct advantage that will help the country make a strong bid to equal or even surpass its two runner-up finishes in 1971 and 1977.
Australia is seeking its 11th win with a team made up of Jack Buchanan, Jye Anthony Pickin and Quinnton Bryce Crocker. The Aussies have been a dominant force the past two decades, posting the longest streak of five straight championships from 1999 to 2011 and five out of eight from 1999 to 2005.
The other countries participating are Chinese-Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.
