ILOILO and Bacolod will host the next two events of the ICTSI golf tour with Sta. Barbara to test the country’s finest pros first starting Wednesday next week in a P1-million tournament.
Sta. Barbara, listed as the oldest golf course in the Far East, poses a different challenge to the likes of Antonio Lascuña, Miguel Tabuena and the Tour’s other big guns because of its traditional layout.
Marapara, now known as the Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club, will be the site of the July 23 to 26 event.
The course is short compared to the other championship, well-manicured layouts in the land, but it is one of the toughest to crack because of its bending heavily wooded fairways and hazards that are in play in every hole.
There are also several holes that will force players to lay up and penalize errant tee shots.
This marks the first time that the tour will go on a Visayan swing since 2012. Zannie Boy Gialon, a product of the defunct National Caddies’ Open program, scored a breakthrough win at Marapara that year when the event was shortened by bad weather to 36 holes.
Gialon will be seeing action in both legs as the men’s tour gets busy again after giving way to two ladies’ legs a couple of weeks back.
Tabuena won the last men’s event, the P3.5-million Valley Invitational, though Lascuña still has a firm grip on the Order of Merit lead with two early victories so far.
The events are being backed by Nike Golf, Srixon, Footjoy, Callaway, It’s More Fun in the Philippines, Custom Clubmakers, Titleist, Sharp and KZG. Musong R. Castillo