AFTER working on getting Asia's oldest national championship rebooted this year, the organizing National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) didn't leave no stone unturned in trying to have the country's best players see action and keep the Smart Infinity Philippine Open title on home soil.
An invite was sent out to US PGA Tour player Rico Hoey as well as to Japan Tour mainstays Juvic Pagunsan and Justin delos Santos along with lady amateur Rianne Malixi and two-time US Women's Open champion Yuka Saso.
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Malixi accepted to take on the challenge playing with the men. Hoey, who plays under the PH flag in the US, Pagunsan and Saso declined, but Delos Santos accepted the shot at winning the $500,000 (about P29M) event.
"Like all the tournaments I sign up for, I will come there to win," the 29-year-old delos Santos, born and raised in the US who will be making his first trip back home in four years. "It would be a special tournament to win."
He is set to arrive on Jan. 18.
Hoey politely begged off from "having an honor to play there" because of commitments made to the PGA Tour as early as November; Pagunsan refused a direct invite by Southwoods, while Saso was also already tied up with the US LPGA.
But with Miguel Tabuena, who will be the highest-ranked Filipino in the field at 267th in the world, and Delos Santos, who has been toughened by years of battle in Japan, and multi-leg Asian Tour winner and former champion Angelo Que, among others present, the Philippines has a very good shot at ruling the 72-hole championship.
"The Filipinos in the field are formidable, and having Rianne there brings excitement and unpredictability," Martin Lorenzo, the president of the NGAP, said. "Our countrymen have a real chance to keep the title on home soil, which would be a great source of pride for our country."
Tabuena ruled the event in 2018 by turning back Prom Meesawat, and the prodigious former India Open champion is listed as one of the favorites mainly because of his innate knowledge of the Masters course of the Carmona, Cavite complex
Some of the finest players in Asia will be coming over for the Jan. 23-26 event, which was shuttered during the pandemic. Clyde Mondilla won it the last time it was held in 2019 at The Country Club in Laguna.
Southwoods had also given an invite to Aguri Iwasaki, a former mainstay of its team and now a Japan Tour star ranked 376th in the world.
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