RUPERT Zaragosa looms as the player to beat when he guns for a second straight title in the WWWExpress-DHL RVF Cup Amateur championship starting Tuesday at Canlubang’s North layout in Laguna.
The many-time national champion will have an advantage against the rest of the field because of his familiarity with the layout he calls home and because the man he beat last year, Andres Saldaña, already turned pro.
Justin Quiban, also a national pool member like Zaragosa, and Japanese expat Gen Nagai loom as the chief threats.
Nagai, a mainstay of the Cebu Country Club squad in the Philippine Airlines Interclub, could find the North course to his liking with Cebu CC built basically the same way.
The event is being presented by the MVP Sports Foundation as part of the PLDT Group Amateur Tour, and this will be the second year that the 72-hole championship’s main benefactor, the late Rod Feliciano, will not be around.
A 54-hole event for women will start on Wednesday with the young Harmie Constantino and Cebu’s LK Go and Wei Wei Gao looming as the favorites with the absence of the members of the rock-solid ICTSI team.
Zaragosa’s narrow victory over the left-handed Saldaña last year easily stands out as one of the most memorable in his career if only for the way he nosed out the former Alabang standout.
The pint-sized Zaragosa avoided a playoff by draining a downhill 25-foot putt from the fringe on the 18th hole. Musong R. Castillo