{"id":228099,"date":"2016-05-19T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=228099"},"modified":"2016-05-19T06:00:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T20:00:10","slug":"governors-tourism-cup-draws-105-golfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/governors-tourism-cup-draws-105-golfers\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup draws 105 golfers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-228099 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/governors-tourism-cup-draws-105-golfers\/governorspix1\/'>governorspix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-228108'>\n\t\t\t\tGov.  Ralph Torres welcomes golfers to the Inaugural Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup Golf Tournament held last Saturday on the east course of the Laolao Bay Golf &amp; Resort. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/governors-tourism-cup-draws-105-golfers\/governorspix2\/'>governorspix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-228109'>\n\t\t\t\tGov. Ralph Torres, third left, congratulates J.J. Atalig, second left, at the awards ceremony for the Inaugural Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup Golf Tournament held last Saturday at the Laolao Bay Golf &amp; Resort. Pictured from left are Marianas Tourism Education Council (MTEC) board member Larry Lee, Atalig, Torres, and MTEC chair Vicky Benavente. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>A total of 105 golfers competed in the Inaugural Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup Golf Tournament held last Saturday on the east course of Laolao Bay Golf &amp; Resort.<\/p>\n<p>Participants joined the six flights with the Top 3 finishers in each division receiving prizes. William Retardo won the Championship Flight and was joined by  David Largent and Jeff Taylor at the podium. Other Top 3 finishers in their respective competitions were  A Flight\u2019s Lee Dong Kyu, Joey Dela Cruz, and Alex Sablan; B Flight\u2019s Tony Guerrero, Lito Mendoza, and Carl Hocog; C Flight\u2019s Mario Taitano, Glenn Maratita, and Diego Benavente; Seniors\u2019s Alex Tudela, Manny Mangarero, and John Cepeda; and Ladies\u2019 Masayo Miyamoto, Lorraine Babauta, and Noriko Togawa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to all the participants, sponsors and volunteers for your support and most especially for braving Mother Nature\u2019s blessings throughout the day. This is the first of what I imagine will be an annual tournament,\u201d tournament director James Nelson said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to Gov. Ralph Torres and the Marianas Visitors Authority (MVA) for hosting a successful event. Lastly, thanks to the Tournament Committee, Vicky Benavente, Martin Duenas, the MVA staff, Ivan Blanco, and Shirley Camacho-Ogumoro for their invaluable assistance and hard work in putting this tournament together. I\u2019m sure everyone involved will look forward to the 2nd Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup Golf Tournament in May 2017,\u201d Nelson added.<\/p>\n<p>The tournament was hosted by the Office of the Governor and MVA to help raise funds for tourism education through the Marianas Tourism Education Council.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased with the great turnout for the first annual Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup,\u201d MVA managing director Chris Concepcion said. \u201cWe thank all our winners and participants for supporting the MTEC\u2019s efforts at educating our youth on the importance of tourism. The MVA team will continue to emphasize that tourism is everybody\u2019s business, so we appreciate the support of the entire community going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Marianas Tourism Education Council will continue to engage students to highlight the tourism industry\u2019s social, cultural, and economic value,\u201d MTEC chair  Vicky Benavente said. \u201cI especially want to express our thanks to director James Nelson for his awesome leadership with organizing this fundraising event for MTEC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event was supported by the following: Major sponsors\u2019s Bank of Guam, Bridge Capital, DFS Saipan Ltd., IT&amp;E; Classic sponsors\u2019 Pacific Islands Club, Joeten Superstore, Best Sunshine Inc., Hyatt Regency Saipan; Classic donors\u2019 Alter City Group, PHI Pharmacy, Saipan Shipping Co., IP&amp;E, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, JET Holding Co., Island Training Solutions, Herman\u2019s Modern Bakery; Hole-in-one sponsors\u2019 Joeten Motors, Pacifica Insurance, Triple J Motors, AK Saipan, IT&amp;E; and Beverage sponsors MARPAC-Budweiser, Saipan Ice &amp; Water, PTC-Miller. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A total of 105 golfers competed in the Inaugural Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup Golf Tournament held&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":228108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1849,1526,212,1527],"class_list":["post-228099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-james-nelson","tag-mtec","tag-mva","tag-vicky-benavente"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}