Guam helps NMI golf courses get USGA rating

Posted on Aug 23 2017

A golfer swings during the 2017 Governor’s Tournament of Champions hosted by Laolao Bay Golf & Resort last May. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Representatives from the Guam National Golf Federation are on Saipan to assist the CNMI Federation of Golf Associations to have all the golf courses on the island get professionally rated under the U.S. Golf Association standards.

GNGF board members Andy Balajadia and Joe James, with Jay Huff and Duke Delisle as certified course raters, are the four representatives from the CNMI’s southern island neighbor.

Coral Ocean Point Golf Resort, Kingfisher Golf Links, Laolao Bay Golf & Resort, Marianas Country Club, and the Saipan Country Club are the golf courses on Saipan.

The three-day project—where the golf courses are measured to meet USGA rating— began on Monday and ends today with the group with CFGA members inspecting COP in the morning and SCC in the afternoon.

Laolao Bay’s east and west courses were the first to be checked last Monday and the group inspected Kingfisher and MCC yesterday.

CFGA president David Largent said it has been 10 years since Saipan’s golf courses were rated. “This [inspection] not only gets the courses up to date, but also allows CFGA the opportunity to offer official handicaps to Saipan golfers. We hope to include Rota in the future.”

Largent added GNGF would also train Saipan representatives to become certified course raters. “So we could make any adjustments in the future ourselves under CFGA.”

Laolao Bay operations manager Tony Satur, operations staff Joe Camacho, sales and marketing manager Paul Park, and local market developer Franco Santos; MCC course manager Thomson Palik and Pro Shop manager Lito Parulan; COP golf operations supervisor Maximo S. Concepcion Jr., and greenkeeper Justin Taitano; Kingfisher general manager Kosuke Sator; and Largent and CFGA vice president Ed Manibusan took part in the rating course.

The CFGA was formed in May this year as the umbrella organization with the various amateur golf associations in the Commonwealth as members. Its main mission is to strengthen the junior program in order to develop local golf talents for on island and international tournaments.

“We also wanted to support professional standards of our golf industry and promote golf tourism to share our fantastic golf courses to other golfers worldwide,” added Largent.

Ed Manglona is the secretary/treasurer of CNFGA that has the Amigos Golf Association, CNMI Women’s Golf Association, Marianas Golf Association, Refaluwash Golf Association, Saipan Golf Association, Fil-Taga Golf Association, Korean Golf Association, and the newly formed Marianas Junior Golf Association as member clubs.

Jon Perez | Reporter

Jon Perez began his writing career as a sports reporter in the Philippines where he has covered local and international events. He became a news writer when he joined media network ABS-CBN. He joined the weekly DAWN, University of the East’s student newspaper, while in college.

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