Agojo-Ikeda duel looms as LPGT unwraps

Jayvie Agojo and Chihiro Ikeda are picked to go up against each other for the title in the P500,000 ICTSI Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) Riviera Classic set to tee off Wednesday at the wind-swept Couples layout in Silang, Cavite.

With Cyna Rodriguez and Dottie Ardina both having commitments to play abroad, the doors are open for Agojo and Ikeda to notch breakthrough wins in the circuit.

Rodriguez and Ardina have split the first five events of the two-year-old Tour with Agojo having a handful of second place finishes, the last coming at Orchard last April behind Rodriguez.

“This is going to be an interesting week,” Ikeda, a former Southeast Asian Games force like Agojo, said. “I’m so hungry for a win. I am training harder than ever and I hope it works.”

“Yes, it’s a wide open race,” Agojo, also a former decorated amateur who has struggled to find her old game, said. “Who knows, I might pick up my first win here.”

The Couples layout will be a very difficult one to conquer, especially if the winds blow.

What remains to be its last line of defense though, are its lightning-fast greens.

Other notable entries the event backed by Nike, Pacsports, Custom Clubmakers and Sharp are the comebacking Tracy Que, who played her last event with husband, the Tour star Angelo Que, as her caddy.

Lovelyn Guioguio, Lucy Landicho and the veterans Mary Grace Estuesta, Lina de Guzman and Sylvia Torres are the others worth watching in the 54-hole championship serving as the second leg of an eight-stage circuit sponsored by International Container Terminal Services, Inc.