EYES will be on the young Filipina players as they battle a tough international field in the Philippine Ladies Open set Feb. 18 to 20 at the Manila Golf Club.
Top and rising players from Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Japan and the US are expected to crowd the country’s leading shotmakers in the 54-hole championship organized by the Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines.
Thailand’s Pimnipa Panthong won in 2015 before Filipina aces ruled the next four editions, with Princess Superal winning in 2016 at Tagaytay Midlands, Bianca Pagdanganan scoring a record win in 2017 at Wack Wack before Yuka Saso swept the next two at Orchard and Manila Golf Club.
Saso and Pagdanganan, along with Lois Kaye Go, won the team gold in the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018 with Saso bagging the individual crown.
Pagdanganan also won the individual gold in the recent SEA Games and led the squad of Go and Abby Arevalo to the team championship, besting the country’s perennial rival Thailand.
But Superal has since moved to the pros while Pagdanganan and Saso are set to launch their pro debuts next year in different circuits abroad, leaving the likes of Junia Gabasa and young Rianne Malixi and Eagle Ace Superal as the likely spearheads of the host nation in the upcoming Philippine Ladies Open.
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