Elite int’l cast gears up for PGT Asia
PGA title in their 85th career attempt.
“That would be awesome,” Varner said. “Just want to have an opportunity.”
Varner, who collected a European Tour triumph at the 2016 Australian PGA Championship, made 10 consecutive pars to start, including a 14-foot putt at the par-3 third and a 10-footer at the sixth.
Varner sank a nine-foot birdie putt at 11. He tapped in at 12, rolled in a 20-footer for birdie at 14 and a 12-footer at the 17th.
Kraft’s round included a 19-foot birdie putt at 10 and a chip in for birdie from 41 feet at 11. But he stumbled late, unable to get up and down for par from bunkers at 16 and 18.
Defending champion Xander Schauffele and
-two foreign aces, led by the crack Thai contingent, dominate the early roster of players bracing for a four-day battle of shotmaking and wits when the Philippine Golf Tour Asia
and Country Club in Antipolo.
Veteran campaigner Wisut Artjanawat and former PGT Sherwood leg winner Ittiphat Buranatanyarat along with Aussies Andrew Campbell and Damien Jordan, South African Mathiam Key-
Paez, John Michael O’Toole, Brett Munson, Lexus Keoninh and Eliott Hume are tipped to slug it out
serving as the fourth leg of the second season of the region’s newest circuit.
David Gleeson of Australia ruled the PGTA’s kickoff leg at Luisita last April, nipping obscure Erwin Arcillas in a playoff. But the local top guns topped the next two with Jobim Carlos edging Tony Lascuña by two to claim his maiden victory
Southwoods crown from O’Toole last month.
Another down- to- the- wire finish looms in the upcoming event sponsored by ICTSI
tougher challenge for the men of the PGTA with its rolling layout, ravines, hazards and the wind that come into play in most holes.
“The course and the condition vary and one has to mind not only his game but also try to better his rivals,” said Lascuña, actually back-to-back
But the ace Davaoeño shotmaker has remained winless in the new season, making him hungrier for recognition along with the other locals in pursuit of glory in the lucrative circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.
Jhonnel Ababa, who won back-toback PGT Asia legs at Eagle
Verde last January, is also out to snap a six-month spell, along with former PGTA leg winner Justin Quiban, Elmer Salvador, Michael Bibat, Zanieboy Gialon, Marvin Dumandan and Mars Pucay, also a former
But focus will be on the crack foreign delegation, including Dutch Guido Van der Valk, Koreans Lee Song and Park Jun Sung, Jack Sullivan of
Thais Natchanon Varapornkit
- tanaphiboonkij, Peter Stojanovski of Macedo- and New Zealand’s Niholas Coxon.
Meanwhile, a select group of pros tests the layout tomorrow ( Tuesday) as they team up with officials and amateur guests of the event’s chief backers, including ICTSI, Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Champion, Summit Mineral Water, K& G Golf Apparel, nia
Technology, Inc. in the pro- am tournament.