Pros gear up for Phl Open showdown

Bukidnon Province's Frankie Minoza and company get their final chance to test the tough Valley Golf Club layout in the Philippine Open pro-am tournament Tuesday, Dec. 14, hoping to make the necessary adjustments in their respective games in time for Wednesday’s start of the P2 million event.

The par-72 championship layout offers a different kind of challenge to the strong 120-player field with its rolling hills, meandering brooks and unpredictable putting surface. This marks the fourth time that VGC will stage the Open after hosting it in 1975, 1983 and 1991.

Minoza, chasing his third Open crown in 12 years, looms as the player to beat in the country’s premier and Asia’s oldest golfing event owning to his form which netted him a spot in next year’s US Seniors Champions Tour.

Others seeing action in the 18-hole pro-am are defending champion Elmer Salvador of Davao City and title contenders Artemio Murakami, Marvin Dumandan, Benjie Magada, former champion Cassius Casas, Ferdie Aunzo, Rey Pagunsan and young turks Antonio Asistio II, Gene Bondoc, Michael Bibat.

They will be paired with the amateurs making up the event's sponsors, VIPs, Valley Golf Club members and NGAP board members with fabulous prizes staked for both the pros and their amateur partners.

Keen competition is seen in the tournament proper with no one holding a distinct advantage over a course that also changes in character, especially in the presence of the wind.

The event is sponsored by San Miguel Corp. and backed by Pagcor, Orient Pearl, Amalgated Motors (Phils.)  Inc., Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Rudy Project, EFC and friends of NGAP and Club Car Phls. as hole-in-one sponsor and A Round of Golf as media partner. Motorola is the event’s 2-way radio supplier.

The Phl Open will also mark the debut for former national champion and many-time Phl team spearhead Mhark Fernando while a host of jungolfers will also be joining the title hunt as part of their training under the NGAP youth program.

Miguel Tabuena, who won the silver medal in the recent Asian Games, heads the youth brigade that includes the likes of  Andres Saldana, Miggy Yee, Jobim Carlos, AR Ramos, Jahns Keanu and reigning national champion Clyde Mondilla.

Focus will also be on the young golfers headed by Miguel Tabuena and the youngest player in the field  11-year-old Lester Lagman, a Junior World campaigner in San Diego and in the Optimist Junior International in Florida.(pr)

Asiad silver medalist vies in Phl Open

Asian Games silver medalist Miguel Tabuena will lead a crack squad of junior players slugging it out with the country's leading shotmakers in the Philippine Open which unfolds Dec. 15 at the Valley Golf Club in Antipolo.
The event will be Tabuena’s first since winning the individual silver medal in the Asiad last month with the 16-year-old shotmaker hoping to flaunt the form he showed in Guangzhou against a field teeming with talent.
Tabuena, who lead in the first two days in China but faltered in the third round before hanging tough in the final day to keep the silver, will be joined in the hunt for top honors in the P2 million event by fellow jungolfers Andres Saldana, Miggy Yee, Jobim Carlos, AR Ramos, Jahns Keanu, Gio Gandionco and Clyde Mondilla, the reigning national champion.
“It has been the NGAP’s task to provide these jungolfers a venue where they could hone their talent and skills. By competing in the Phl Open, we hope to toughen up our young player for future tournaments abroad,” said tournament director Pablo Soon, also a director of the National Golf Association of the Phils.
Tabuena and company are actually training under the ICTSI-Cangolf program headed by Tommy Manotoc, also the head of NGAP’s youth and developmental pool.
The junior team actually won the Lion City Cup, the junior side of the Putra Cup, in Malaysia recently and is all primed up to prove its worth next week.
But the jungolfers will be up a formidable roster of players, headed by Frankie Minoza and five of the top 10 players in this year’s ICTSI-Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit rankings, headed by Marvin Dumandan, Artemio Murakami, Benjie Magada, Ferdie Aunzo and Cassius Casas.
The other amateurs in the fold are the ICTSI-The Country Club mainstays Dante Becierra, Peter Villaber, Carl Santos-Ocampo, Charles Hong, Zanie Boy Gialon and Alexes Nallos and Asian Games and World Am veteran Jerson Balasabas.
The Phl Open field will have a minimum of 120 players, including pros and amateurs. For details, contact NGAP at 02-5179778/5577849, Susan (0917-5607074) or Charlyn (0922-8234758)  or telefax 02-7065926 or email ngapgolf@hotmail.com.
The traditional pro-am tournament will be held Dec. 14, featuring the leading pros on the PGT Order of Merit ranking and amateurs along with the event's sponsors, VIPs, Valley Golf Club members and NGAP board members.[PR]

RP Open returns to Valley Dec. 15-18

The Philippine Open, the country's premier golf championship, will be held Dec.
15-18  with Asia's oldest golfing event making its return to the Valley Golf
Club in Antipolo in nearly two decades.
Elmer Salvador will try to defend the crown he won over a stellar field
last year at Mt. Malarayat Golf and Country Club in Lipa, Batangas but will face
a highly charged field coming off a year-long campaign on the
ICTSI-Philippine Golf Tour.
Registration is ongoing with fees pegged at P3,000 for local pros and $100
for foreign entries, according to the organizing National Golf Association of
the Phils. For details, contact NGAP (Susan Facundo) at 7065926 or 0917-5607074.
Salvador held off Dutchman Guido Van der Valk in the final round to chalk up
a three-stroke victory last year, capping a banner season that saw the Davaoeno
shotmaker also run away with the Order of Merit crown on the local circuit.
Last year's field that included the cream of the country's pro crop will be
back again in December, led by Frankie Minoza, Angelo Que, Tony Lascuna,
Artemio Murakami, Mars Pucay, Marvin Dumandan, Jay Bayron, Cassius Casas and
Robert Pactolerin.
Former national champion Mhark Fernando and Jhonnel Ababa are also expected
to join the hunt for the crown as they make their debut on the pro tour.
American Dennis Paulson humbled the local pros and other top foreign players
to capture the crown in the 1991 edition of the annual event at Valley, which
is expected to provide a different kind of challenge for the men of the tour.
Valley last hosted a pro tournament in 2009 with Salvador outlasting Ababa then
pulling off a two-stroke victory over Gene Bondoc with an eight-under 208 total.
The traditional pro-am tournament, featuring the leading pros and officials
of the event's sponsors and guests, will be held Dec. 14.
Like last year, the NGAP is pushing through with the Open at the end of the
year although it will not be a part of the Asian Tour for the second straight
time.
The Philippine Open used to be a leg of the Asian Tour with the local
players slugging it out with region's leading shotmakers. But after 2008, the AT
and NGAP officials had failed to strike a new deal, leaving the Open without
the Asian stars and out of the Asian Tour calendar.
(pr)