PGT caps 10th season at South Pacific

The Philippine Golf Tour caps its milestone 10th season fittingly on a course making its first hosting of the country’s premier circuit – the ICTSI South Pacific Classic which gets under way tomorrow at the South Pacific Golf & Leisure Estates in Catalunan Pequeño in Davao City.

Coming off back-to-back victories in Taiwan and Apo the last two weeks, Tony Lascuña stands out as the marked man in the P3 million event. But the veteran shotmaker will be practically as clueless as the rest of the stellar international field on the challenges posed by the bunker-laden course hosting a tournament of this magnitude for the first time.

Another championship course developed by the Sta. Lucia Development, Inc. chaired by Vicente Santos and designed by Mike Singgaran, the par-72 layout opened its first nine holes in June 2016 with the other nine completed in September last year.

It features long par-4s and sleek surface with Bermuda 419 turf grass on the tees, roughs and fairways and Zoysia grass on the greens, according to VMJ Evergreen Golf Maintenance and Construction Corp.

But with the pros in competitive form coming off a series of tournaments, a low-scoring battle looms in all four days of the championship also serving as the fourth leg of the Mindanao swing of the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.

“What makes this event interesting is that no one holds an advantage at South Pacific – familiaritywise,” said Lascuña.

The field tested the course in yesterday’s official practice round with Lascuña and a select number of pros gaining another chance to play it in today’s pro-am where they will be paired with guests and officials of the event’s chief backers, including ICTSI, Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Champion, Summit Mineral Water, K&G Golf Apparel, BDO, Sharp, KZG, PLDT and M.Y. Shokai Technology.

Beefing up the cast are last week’s runner-up Keanu Jahns, Nilo Salahog, reigning Philippine Open champion Clyde Mondilla, Pueblo de Oro titlist Reymon Jaraula, Ira Alido, Paul Echavez, Art Arbole, Ramil Bisera, Elmer Salvador, Jhonnel Ababa, Elmer Saban and Ferdie Aunzo. from Floyd, we’re carrying on,” he told worldboxingnews.com. “We will fight whoever is presented and try to make entertaining fights for another year into 2020. And that’s even though the Senator, at this point in his career, takes one fight at a time. Funnier things have happened in life. You just don’t know when that one day is, maybe the guy gets the itch. Maybe, he says, ‘I’m tired of people talking about it again.’ Floyd likes to talk about being 50-0, that’s wonderful. Senator is 62-7-2 and has won eight titles in eight divisions. Plus he’s still beating the best. Floyd, when he was rolling out, beat up an MMA guy and some little poor Japanese guy. His legacy is going out on beating up people on freak shows.”