Time to strike for Fernando at Riviera
SILANG, Cavite—Anthony Fernando, the former national amateur champion still looking for his first professional win, believes he and several others like him have a chance to go all theway this week.
“It’s time for us to strike,” Fernando told the INQUIRER yesterday, moments before teeing off for a final fine-tuning of his game in preparation for today’s start of the P2.5-million ICTSI Riviera Classic at the demanding Langer layout here.
Fernando, who practiced at Southwoods in Carmona because he was not given a slot in the Pro-Am tournament at Riviera, knows that with the big guns like Angelo Que, Antonio Lascuña and the other Asian Tour regulars absent, he has a chance to hit pay dirt.
“The tournament has become wide-open,” Fernando said in Filipino. “This is a big tournament and it would be a great confidence boost for anyone who wins.”
This week’s champion takes home a cool P450,000.
Elmer Saban, after posting his maiden pro win last Friday at Splendido in Tagaytay, can join an elite list of players who have won back-to-back legs if he manages to take that form here thisweek.
Jay Bayron, Mars Pucay and Elmer Salvador are also in Macau for the Venetian Open of the Asian Tour.
But the spotlight has not fallen on some of the past winners at Riviera like Mark Fernando and Jonel Ababa.
Fernando ruled this event as an amateur in 2009, while Ababa triumphed two years later and became that season’s Player of the Year.
Length off the tees as well as precision will be demanded from the field over the dreaded, ravine-laced layout.
Cassius Casas, the former Philippine Open winner, is one of the players towatch after finishing second to Saban at Splendido.