MIGUEL Tabuena, whose dream to play in LIV Golf was starting to define his career, finally realized his ambition on Thursday after he was called to action and played in Dustin Johnson’s Aces team, the first Filipino to tee off in what is considered as one of the richest golf leagues in the world.
The 31-year-old, paired in his first outing with Danny Lee and Cameron Tringale, did not disappoint. He fired a one-under-par 71 and tied for 35th place in the 57-player field at the Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia.
Tabuena had purposely stayed in Riyadh after he was named first reserve of the golf league and in doing so missed his chance to carry the country's hopes in the first Philippine Golf Championship, the Asian Tour's season opener, which also started on Thursday at Wack Wack Golf Club.
Patience pays off for Tabuena
His anticipation paid off when, on the eve of the start of the LIV Golf season, Johnson made the call and inserted Tabuena in the Aces lineup which also include Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters.
Detry is tied for the lead at 7 under after scoring a 65. Pieters shot a 70 and Johnson an even par 72. Also scoring a 65 and tied for the lead was Peter Uihlein.
The team standings is still being processed before this was posted.
Tabuena shot three birdies against two bogeys and was in a seven-way tie for 35th with, among others, Jason Kokrak, Danny Lee, Brendan Steele and Sam Horsfield.
Tabuena had earlier narrowly missed getting an outright spot in LIV Golf after he placed third in the rankings where the top two earned automatic spots. In the Promotions tournament that picked an additional three players, Tabuena did not fare well.
Despite this, Aces team captain Johnson saw his potential, especially after Tabuena won the International Series home event last October. It prorbably also helped that Johnson and Tabuena were paired in the tournament's first two days.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity for me this week,” Tabuena said during an interview. “Competing against the best player in the world has always been a dream of mine and I still can’t believe it’s finally happening.
“Winning in Manila at the International Series Philippines and playing well there definitely helped. That tournament had the strongest field I’ve ever played against.”
Tabuena is expected to get an enormous financial boost after joining LIV, whose tournaments offer a $50,000 prize for last place and $4 million to the winner. LIV has 14 events this season.
These prizes are only for individual events. A separate set of prizes is at stake in the team event. Each team will contest $10 million in prizes with the amount depending on how the team finishes.
Overall, LIV Golf is offering $470 million in prizes after significantly increasing its budget from last year’s.
Besides prizes having gone through the roof, Tabuena is joining LIV at a time when the organization received notice from the Official World Golf Rankings that it would be giving points to the top 10 placers in each of the LIV Golf tournaments.
This is a positive development for the league which before had not receive points for its players. It also recently reverted to 72 holes from the original 54 holes format.
At the same time, LIV Golf is undergoing some crises after the departure of Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed. Koepka has rejoined the PGA Tour and played at Torrey Pines and is also participating in the Phoenix Open starting Thursday.
Reed, on the other hand, is campaigning in the DP World Tour and is expected to play in the PGA Tour months from now.
For Tabuena, however, these are things he should not bother himself with. His task is just to compete, play well and bring home the bacon. Or maybe, some trophies, too.
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