Motivated Mondilla chases elusive TCC Invt’l crown
Motivated by crushing setbacks, Clyde Mondilla never runs out of patience and hope in pursuit of a championship missing in his trophy collection, gearing up for another possible shot at The Country Club Invitational crown beginning Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the TCC course in Laguna.
“As much as possible, I practice daily – fairways in the morning then range in the afternoon,” said Mondilla, who had squandered two clear cracks at the title in the last two editions of the Philippine Golf Tour’s flagship tournament.
He co-led with young Korean Tom Kim in the third round in 2019 but wavered with a 76 in the final round and ended up third behind the now PGA Tour star and Keanu Jahns. The 2010 national amateur champion also lost by one to Guido van Der Valk in 2020 before the event took a forced two-year break due to pandemic.
But heading to the record P6 million championship, Mondilla admits he remains far from reaching top form, saying: “Even if I practice every day, I still have so much to improve on.”
With 12 titles under his belt, however, including the Philippine Open in 2019, also at TCC, Mondilla looms as one of the marked players from among the elite cast spearheaded by five former winners, including one of the event’s two threetime champion Juvic Pagunsan (2006, 2008 and 2012).
Others going for a second championship are 2013 winner Frankie Miñoza, multi-titled Tony Lascuna (2004) and Micah Shin, who became the first nonFilipino winner of the event put up by ICTSI chairman and CEO Ricky Razon in 2003 to honor his father and ICTSI founder Don Pocholo, when he nipped 2017 titlist Miguel Tabuena by one in 2018.