Mondilla draws top ADT golfers in Aboitiz opener

Clyde Mondilla hopes to display the form that earned him two local titles after drawing with No. 1 Pavit Tangkamolprasert of Thailand and No. 2 Johannes Veerman of the United States at the start of the Asian Development Tour Aboitiz Invitational today at Wack Wack’s East course.

Mondilla and the ADT frontrunners slug it out at 7:30 a.m. on No. 10 with the young Del Monte shotmaker hoping to cash in on whatever advantage he has in terms of local knowledge of the challenging layout.

“I don’t give it much thought, being paired with ADT’s top two players. My focus is on my game. I need to start strong, actually in the first two days to be able to make the cut. Then, I’ll attack,” said Mondilla, who scored back-to-back wins at Eastridge and Calatagan but slowed down in the next four legs of the PGT dominated by Tony Lascuña.

But Tangkamolprasert, the current ADT OOM leader who nipped local ace Lin Wen-tang on the fourth playoff hole to snare the Yeangder ADT crown last April, is out to stamp his class, along with Veerman, also a playoff winner over Taiwanese Wang Wei-lun in the Taifong Open ADT two weeks ago, as they try to press their bid early for the needed momentum in what promises to be a four-day battle of shotmaking and putting over one of the country’s toughest courses.

The featured group is but three of a slew of players tipped to contend for the crown in the $100,000 event serving as the 18th leg of the ADT and 11th stage of the PGT with the chase for the top $17,500 purse put up by Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. for the sixth straight year expected to go down to the last putt on Saturday.

But while the foreign cast, led by nine of the Top 10 players in the ADT OOM, looks daunting, the local roster remains as talent-laden as ever with former two-time champion Elmer Salvador and former titlists Jay Bayron and Lascuña out to keep the Aboitiz crown at home.

“It will be tough with the best on the ADT competing but we are ready,” said Lascuña, actually the winningest local player this year with four victories on the PGT. “What we need is a strong start and then try to sustain it since the field is too strong.”