Tour’s big guns out to foil Casas

Despite his recent victory in the Philippine Open, Cassius Casas faces a formidable challenge against the best shotmakers in the land with a slew of talents out to foil his bid in the College Assurance Plan-Legends Classic which fires off today at the Manila Southwoods.

Danny Zarate, Tony Lascuna and Richard Sinfuego, three of the four leg winners of the Philippine Golf Tour, and veteran internationalist Gerald Rosales make up the core of the group fancied to challenge Casas for the top P100,000 purse staked in this event sponsored by CAP and supported by Ericsson, Smart, Manila Southwoods Manor, Publicist Spark and Wilson Sports.

This early, however, many are expecting a Casas-Rosales duel for top honors with the former raring to nail his first win in the local tour after his emphatic victory in the RP Open at Wack Wack and the latter out to redeem himself from a forgettable title-retention campaign in the country’s richest golfing event.

And there couldn’t be a more fitting time than to pit them at the start of the 72-hole championship with former president Fidel Ramos and Manila Southwoods chairman Bob Sobrepeña as their playing partners in the shotgun style pro-am event at 8 a.m.

Prior to tee-off, Ramos and Sobrepena will hit the ceremonial balls with lawyer Enrique Sobrepeña, president and CEO of the sponsoring College Assurance Plan, Carmona Mayor Roy Loyola, NGAP president Rod Feliciano and GMA Foundation officials Mary Anne Colayco and Rafael Evangelista.

The event is the fifth stop of the Philippine Golf Tour and except for Rey Pagunsan, winner of the MRT-Southwoods Open held at the Masters course, all the other leg champions are in the cast.

Zarate, who topped the CAP-Forest Hills Classic and placed second to Casas in the Philippine Open at Wack Wack two weeks ago, and Lascuña, the Ericsson-Smart titlist at Sherwood Hills, loom as the most solid threat to the title bids of Casas and Rosales.

Like the rest of the big guns, John Hay Open titlist Sinfuego will also try to become the first two-leg winner of the tour.

College Assurance Plan is putting up a whopping P700,000 prize package for the five-in-one event that will also feature competitions in seniors, super seniors, amateur and pro-am.

The winner in the regular pro division gets P100,000, P20,000 go to the seniors (50 years and above) champ, P10,000 for the super seniors and another P10,000 for the pro of the winning team in the pro-am.

Angelo Que, in the middle of a big controversy after pulling out of the national team for the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia this September, will banner the elite cast in the amateur division.

Que, who had won all but one of the four major events disputed this year, recently begged off from the SEAG in protest of the criteria used by the NGAP to select the members of the team that resulted to the non-inclusion of his buddy Cookie LaO.

The amateur category has been transformed into a 72-hole affair with the members of the Manila Southwoods squad set to pit skills with the frontliners of the Canlubang team.

Hole-in-one prizes are also at stake on the seventh courtesy of the Ericsson and on the 16th donated by Smart.