Top Pinoy golfers face foreign challenge

CARMONA, Cavite, Philippines — They’re all here – from defending champion Jay Bayron to Angelo Que, Miguel Tabuena, Jobim Carlos, Clyde Mondilla and Juvic Pagunsan, all ready and itching to slug it out with a host of foreign aces in a duel of power, iron game and putting in the ICTSI Manila Southwoods Championship today  at the Legends course here.

Notwithstanding the unpredictable weather, softened fairways, thick roughs and sleek putting surface, the star-studded international field of 112 pros set out for an explosive start and brace for a wild finish in the $100,000 event that has assembled one of the strongest cast in years.

A select pro field tested the bunker-laden layout in the heat and rain in yesterday’s pro-am tournament, most hinting at a run of under-par scores, some intimating of a tougher, challenging outing and others remaining wary of what lies ahead in the next four days of the third leg of the third season of the Philippine Golf Tour Asia.

“The course looks tough, especially with the erratic weather conditions. Mabigat ang bola,” said Jay Bayron, who ruled this event put up by ICTSI with a whopping 26-under total last year.

But what concerns most of the bidders in this third leg of the region’s emerging circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. is the depth of the competing field with the likes of Que and Tabuena taking a break from their campaigns abroad to beef up the local roster headed by the red-hot Juvic Pagunsan.

“It’s difficult to feel so confident. The field is strong, anybody can go low at any given day,” said 2017 PGT Order of Merit winner Mondilla, on a comeback from a recent injury that hampered his campaign after emerging the surprise winner in the Solaire Philippine Open at The Country Club last April.