SOME of the biggest names on the Asian Tour - and the brightest talents the Philippines can offer - set out to win Asia's oldest national golf championship when Manila Southwoods, which is being spruced up to perfect championship shape, hosts the 108th playing of the Philippine Open in just over a month.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has stepped in to make sure that the event will be one to remember, putting up a $1 million (around P63 million) kitty for the 72-hole championship beginning on Nov. 12 at the world-class Masters course of the SW complex in Carmona, Cavite.
READ NGAP vows Philippine Open to go on as scheduled at Southwoods
"It is a tradition that the PSC certainly wants to continue with," PSC chair Pato Gregorio said after making the pledge to make the tournament a big Asian Tour leg. "We wouldn't want such a big event be put on the shelf.
"It's the Philippine Open, it's the pride of the country."
The Open first came to being in 1913 and has been held yearly save for seven times, the first being in 2003 because of a name dispute, the next two in 2013 and 2016 because of super typhoons that battered the country, and then four years from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frenchman Julien Sale won the revival last year also at the Masters, and he is expected to banner the foreign challenge that will try to prevent a Filipino from again winning since Miguel Tabuena triumphed in the 100th staging at Luisita.
Tabuena, who played in the final season of the LIV 1.0 Golf League, and fellow PH Asian Games team members Justin delos Santos and Carl Corpus will be on the starting roster, with Tabuena having innate knowledge of one of the local courses he calls home.
That win was the second Open title for Tabuena, who at 32 has become the face of local pro golf, even as another past champion in Angelo Que is also given an equal chance at 47 years old since he is enjoying one of the finest two-year stretches of his career.
Meanwhile, the management of Manila Southwoods has not stopped in conditioning the Jack Nicklaus-designed Masters since being awarded the rights to host the event for the second straight year.
It will be one of the narrowest versions of the Masters the field will see come the second week of November as the roughs are now being allowed to grow and the fairways reduced in width to punish errant tee shots.
The Asian Tour also did its part in making sure the event goes on as scheduled even after the withdrawal of BingoPlus as the title sponsor.
The online betting app decided to not back the event just over a month ago, threatening to shut down everything before the Asian Tour and the governing National Golf Association of the Philippines pushed all the right buttons to get it going again.
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