Record turnout expected at HANMI golf tourney

The 4th Annual Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands Charity Golf Tournament is fast shaping up to be a record-breaking event.

Just a few weeks after organizing committee chair Ed Salas reported that sponsors have certainly outdid themselves this year, the golf tournament is now expecting a record number of participants when the event tees off tomorrow, April 2, at the Coral Ocean Point golf course.

“I’m ecstatic about the turnout for the tournament. In fact we have basically filled up the 150 slots available for the tournament and there are still some on the waiting list. Right now we have about a little more than 160. The public was very enthusiastic about the tournament and I cannot even explain in words how happy I am and the rest of the members of the organizing committee,” he said.

Salas said preparations for tomorrow’s big event is hitting a fever pitch a couple of day’s before the region’s top golfers descend to the greens and fairways of COP for 18 rounds of memorable golf.

Businesses that pitched in for one of the year’s biggest and richest golfing events are DFS Galleria Saipan, Japan Saipan Travel Association, Saipan Shipping and Nippon Travel, the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association, Triple J Motors, Microl Corp., Shell Marianas, Bank of Hawaii, Sandcastle, and Ambyth Shipping, among others.

Hole-in-one prizes include cars from automobile dealers, roundtrip tickets from airline companies not to mention cold cash in the thousands of dollars.

Roundtrip tickets to Japan, Manila, Korea, Australia and the U.S. mainland will be up for grabs courtesy of Asiana Airlines, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Northwest Airlines. Spanking new 2005 Toyota Rav 4 from Microl Toyota and 2005 Mazda3 from Triple J Motors also await hole-in-one winners.

“It was mainly because of help from the sponsors. It also didn’t hurt that this is one of the biggest golf tournaments of the year. In fact, one of the bigger tournaments of the year before the TOC [Tournament of Champions] and a lot of people are itching to get their hands on all of the fabulous prizes,” added Salas.

Tomorrow’s golf extravaganza tees off with a shotgun start at noon but participants are requested to show up at 10:30am for registration.

The HANMI Charity Golf Tournament will have four flights—Championship Flight for players with 0 to 5 handicaps, A Flight for 6 to 10; B Flight for 11 to 16; C Flight for 17 and over.

The HANMI tournament committee is composed of representatives from HANMI members. It is co-chaired by Michael von Siebenthal, Hyatt Regency general manager. Also in the committee are HANMI president Lynn Knight; Jerry John, Pacific Islands Club resident manager; Yutaka Fujita, Hotel Nikko general manager; Yoshiro Kishimoto, COP Resort general manager; Paul Camacho, Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach duty manager; Juko Ishikawa, World Resort Saipan rooms director; Dave Jones, former Hyatt Regency executive chef; Thomson Palik, assistant manager of COP Resort’s Pro-Shop; Becky Castro, Triple J Wholesale general manager; Yoichi Matsumura, Pacific Development Inc. general manager; Mike Pai, Saipan Sunset Cruise general manager; Joe Asanuma, Mariana Resort and Spa personnel manager; and Faheem Ebrahim, spa and fitness director at Hyatt Regency’s Club Elan.