Hyatt GM elated on Manila trip

Hyatt Regency Saipan general manager Michael von Siebenthal was elated that the Garapan landmark was able to bring home the bacon, so to speak, in the 2nd Annual Club at the Hyatt Golf Tournament held at the Sherwood Hills Golf Club on Oct. 29-30 in Tagaytay City, Philippines.

“We’re very happy about the results. We’re very happy our Club at the Hyatt members were able to win the tournament and bested their counterparts from Manila and Guam, especially Guam,” he said.

Guam topped last year’s inaugural tournament between the three hotels but lost steam this year finishing in third place behind Saipan and Manila. Local golfers got a boost with the participation of 2003 Suva South Pacific Games veteran Joe “Kamikaze” Camacho, B flight specialist Diego Blanco, and women’s ace golfer Noriiko Togawa.

Club at the Hyatt members from Saipan wound up with 1,410 in two rounds to finish ahead of Manila, which had 1,428, and Guam, which had 1,457.

Saipan led from the get-go, as its players combined for a superb 707 in the first day of competition compared to 719 for Manila and 743 for Guam. It didn’t end there as Saipan made it two-for-two the next day amassing a score of 703 to once again top the three-team fight, while Manila and Guam could only muster 709 and 714, respectively.

Camacho, Blanco, and Togawa also finished with the best scores in their respective divisions. Camacho fired a 132 in two rounds to win Class-A, while Togawa’s 144 smoked the field in the ladies division. Blanco, meanwhile, finished tied with four others atop the leaderboard in Class-B but yielded the Top 2 spots because of tiebreaks.

von Siebenthal, who also played for the team, said Saipan was awarded the championship cup during a gala dinner/Halloween night held at the Hyatt Regency Manila on Oct. 30.

Sam Cheng, food and beverage director of the hotel and also a member of the champion team, said the three-day, three-night golf package to Manila was also made possible by Continental Micronesia, which gave a special discount to the delegation.

Cheng and von Siebenthal both said that aside from the two days of wonderful golf, played at the mountain resort town south of Manila, Saipan Club at the Hyatt members also were able to shop at the Philippine capital’s famously inexpensive shopping malls.

Other members of the victorious Club at the Hyatt Saipan team were Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente, Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan, Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Carlos Salas, Camacho’s SPG teammate Nick Sablan, former resident Richard Heidemann (husband of former Philippine Consul General Julia Heidemann), Pacific Trading Co. general manager Charles Cepeda, Rex Palacios, Timothy Brasuell, Juan Reyes, Frank Castro, Renato Babalones, Sung Wook Lee, Manny Alvarez, Bob George John Matsumoto, John Santos, Matt Araki, Frankie Pangelinan, Daniel Harding, Mike Pai, Mark Hanson, Belle Grandinetti, Liz George, and Yoko Togawa.