The combined golfers from Melbourne and Sydney representing Australia finally won the 7th Fil Trans Tasman Golf Classic versus the combined golfers from Auckland and Wellington representing New Zealand. This was held over the weekend, 6-7 September 2025, in Melbourne’s Craigieburn and Mandalay Golf Courses using 4-balls and an individual match play scoring system, wherein Australia’s total points of 11 was secured against New Zealand’s 6 points. Hence, the huge perpetual trophy will be retained in Australia.
Individual overall winner with the highest stableford score for two (2) days was Ed Montero from Sydney with his unbeatable score of 51 points. He was awarded with trophy plus a cash prize for his fantastic efforts.
Individual and daily winners, divided into Grades A & B with their winning stableford points were: Day 1 – Romy Espineda (33 points) for A and Rey Sapitola (39 points) for B. Day 2 (using nine holes) – Bombo Lagman (18) for A and Rupert Gutierrez (19) for B. These daily winners were awarded with trophies and cash prizes.
Novelty hole winners (NTPs) during the two days competition who were awarded with sleeves of golf balls were: Dennis Valenzuela (hole 9), Romy Espineda (hole11) and Roman Susi (hole 18) for Day 1; Grace Gueco (hole 7), Roman Susi (hole 3), Willy de Joya (hole 15) and Sol Valera (hole 11) for Day 2.
Before the awards presentation, this writer (as coordinator) along with Buddy Espineda (Pinoy Golfers of Melbourne team captain and host) and Archie Milo, the team captain of the New Zealand delegation were awarded with golden medals for their great efforts in coordinating and hosting the 7th Fil Trans Tasman Golf Classic which was deferred and postponed for several years due to Covid-19 and bad weather.
The emcee was efficiently handled by Willy de Joya, who also required this writer to say a few words on how this golf classic started.
How it started
The idea came from Arne Go of Auckland and Toti Umali of Canberra in 2006, who both approached me to start a golf tournament every other year, hosting alternately between golfers from Australia and New Zealand to coincide with the worldwide Ryder Cup and adopting its system of scoring.
The first was finally held in Sydney, hosted by Fil-oz Social Golf Club in October 2008 and won by Australia. The second was held in Auckland in September 2010, hosted by the PGA of Auckland, headed by Roy Boquiron and won by New Zealand. The third series was held in Canberra (ACT), hosted by FilCom Sports of ACT, headed by Ariel Pattugalan, in September 2012 and won by New Zealand.
The fourth series was held in October 2014 in Wellington, hosted by Wellington Filipino Sports Association, headed by Archie Milo and won by New Zealand. The Filipino Business Council of New Zealand donated the huge trophy.
The fifth series was held in the Gold Coast, hosted by Pinoy Golfers of Brisbane, headed by Dino Francisco, in September 2016. As there were only three golfers from New Zealand, this was mostly a local tournament. Obviously, the perpetual trophy was left in Australia.
The sixth series was held in Queenstown, New Zealand, in September 2018, hosted by WFSA, headed by Archie Milo. New Zealand won, and it was announced that the 7th series would be held in Melbourne and to be hosted by Pinoy Golfers of Melbourne, headed by Buddy Espineda.
It was decided by the Committee that the 8th Series would be held in Auckland, New Zealand, sometime in September 2027, to be hosted by the Pinoy Golfers of Auckland.
