Bevy of prizes await NMC Open winners

A bevy of prizes await golfers that will join the seven categories in this Saturday’s 6th Annual NMC Foundation Open at the west course of the Laolao Bay Golf Resort.

Champions of each flight—Championship, A, B, C, Senior, Ladies, and the double Peoria—will receive roundtrip tickets from Continental Airlines.

The Top 3 finishers will also receive cash prizes with the champions winning $500, while the second and third placers in each flight will get $300 and $200, respectively.

This year’s tournament will be different since they won’t be awarding trophies to the Top 3 placers and instead will hand out certificates. Exciting raffle prizes also await all participants

Aside from the cash prizes for the Top 3 finishers in each flight, close to $75,000 are at stake for hole-in-one winners.

Golfers who ace hole No. 3 would win $5,000 cash courtesy of Century Insurance Corp., while anyone who sinks a shot in one stroke in either holes No. 7 and 13 is guaranteed $25,000 cash from Bank of Hawaii and AON Insurance.

One lucky golfer will get the chance to win a brand new 2008 Mazda 3 courtesy of Triple J Motors if he or she sinks the ball in one swing in hole No. 17.

Holes No. 3, 7, 13, and 17 are all par-3 holes. Show time for Saturday’s tournament is at 6am while shotgun starts at 7am.

Cash prizes are also at stake in the closest to the pin winners at all par-3 holes. Sign up for each hole is $20 with the closest to the pin winners earning the total cash collected in the four holes.

More prizes are offered in the raffle to be held at the post-tournament banquet at the Hyatt Regency Saipan poolside on Saturday night. A special sponsors cocktail party at the Club V of the Saipan Grand Hotel will also be held on the eve of the 6th Annual NMC Foundation Open.

Organizers have already collected $91,500 in cash donations from all sponsors.

The NMC Foundation Open organizing committee—led by chairman Michael von Siebenthal, co-chair Ben Babauta, and members Mark Mendiola, Joanna Pai, and Ivan Quichocho—met last Friday at the Kili Café at the Hyatt Regency Saipan to update their ongoing preparations for the Commonwealth’s second “major” golf tournament.

More than 80 have already registered for Saturday’s event and beat the April 19 deadline , paying only $85. The sign up fee is now $100.

A volunteers’ meeting will also be held at the NMC conference room tomorrow, April 22, 9am to discuss the assignments for Saturday’s tournament, which will follow a special double Peoria on all men’s flights.

Proceeds from the 6th Annual NMC Foundation Open will go toward the needs of the islands’ lone tertiary institution.

For registration information, contact Mark Mendiola at 234-5498 ext. 1050 or visit Triple J Motors, NMC cashier’s window, or the Laolao Bay Golf Resort to sign up.

The NMC Foundation is a non-profit organization whose goal is to raise funds and support the Northern Marianas College, Saipan’s lone post-secondary educational institution. It is made up of individuals who are dedicated and committed to ensuring that CNMI students receive the utmost support in pursuing their educational goals.