Philippine Team member Jaden Dumdumaya heads some 80 other golfers as they see action in the Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines (JGFP) Cebu-Visayas leg starting Wednesday, April 10, at the Cebu Country Club.

The 16-year-old US-based Dumdumaya is a member of the University of Southern California and has bagged the 2022 Drive Chip and Putt Championship at Augusta National. He qualified to the men's national golf team for next month’s Cambodia Southeast Asian Games.

The event is part of the foundation’s summer program that offers categories from golfers 6-under to 18-and-below open to all. After the Cebu competition, the JGFP will follow it up with a tournament in Del Monte in Bukidnon – the hometown of Filipino golf legend Frankie Minoza.

The tournament in Cebu is set April 12 and 13, while the event in Del Monte is scheduled April 15 and 16.

“We’re very thankful to Del Monte and Cebu Country Club for the support. I hope this will lead to the golf clubs supporting their junior programs,” said JGFP president Oliver Gan, a former golf consultant at the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) under chairman Baham Mitra.

“Of course, just like the tournaments we had in Davao and in Cagayan de Oro, our goal is to conduct tournaments for grassroots development, and hopefully by doing so, we can discover new talents because we do have many of that in the region (Visayas and Mindanao),” added Gan.

Last January, the JGFP held tournaments in Davao and Cagayan De Oro with hopes of not just boosting their grassroots programs but to discover new talents in the region since both events drew more than 100 participants.

Gan said that conducting tournaments in the Visayas region were made possible by two JGFP elected board members, namely Baltaire Balangauan and Charlie Go – both prominent fixtures in local golf. He also expressed his gratitude to Del Monte junior golf chairman Mae Linaac, Ronald Canlas and Minoza.