CANLUBANG, Laguna—With the big guns of the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour campaigning abroad, a wide-open race is again expected when the P1-million Canlubang leg tees off today at the complex North course here.
Mark Fernando will be gunning for a second straight title and he will do so over a course he knows like the back of his hands, even as defending champion Zannie Boy Gialon tries to snap out of a long slump.
Jessie Balasabas, the second placer to Fernando in the P2.5-million Riviera leg two weeks ago, is also seeing action and will also be looking for a breakthrough win on a layout where he earned his spurs as an ace amateur.
Order of Merit leader Antonio Lascuña, Angelo Que and Miguel Tabuena, among others, will be playing in the Asian Tour’s $1.2-million Indian Open this week, giving the Tour’s lesser lights the chance to shine.
The North course will play longer than its usual length of close to 7,000 yards because of the rains that have battered the layout for the past two days.
Rains forced the cancellation of the traditional Pro-Am yesterday.
Fernando, Balasabas and Gialon were part of several champion Canlubang teams in the Philippine Airlines Interclub in the last decade, and their familiarity with the tree-lined layout will serve them well.
Artemio Murakami, the former Philippine Open winner who has been groping for form of late, won this event in 2011 at the adjacent South layout.
Other backers of the event are Nike Golf, Srixon, Custom Clubmakers, Pacsports, Cleveland Golf, Callaway, Ping, Mizuno, Empire Golf and Sports Shop, FootJoy, Titleist, Sharp, BMW and Gergia Energy Foods.