Hot Tabuena up against Apo-honed foes

MIGUEL Tabuena and Elmer Salvador, the winner of the last two ICTSI legs, will be in the featured threesome together with the country’s revered pro Wednesday when the P1.5 million Apo Golf Challenge kicks off at the tree-lined, hazard-laden layout in Davao.

Frankie Miñoza, the ageless veteran, will be the third man in the group teeing off at No. 1 at 11 a.m. with the 54-year-old Champions Tour campaigner and Japan Senior Tour regular trying to kick-start his bid for a first win this season.

Tabuena will be seeking a follow up to a sterling performance at Rancho Palos Verdes last week where he birdied the 70th hole on the way to a one-shot victory over Salvador.

But Salvador, like so many others in the field this week, is at his best in this famous course where he learned the game and worked as a caddy for several years before gaining national prominence.

Antonio Lascuña, Cassius Casas, Jay Bayron and Jonel Ababa are also rated highly like Salvador, making this 72-hole championship, last won by the temperamental Juvic Pagunsan in 2011, a wide-open race.

Lascuña has been contending well but has failed to complete the job done after eight legs of the current season.

Last year, the 47-year-old, who now plays out of Southwoods in Laguna, won five events on the way to winning the Order of Merit race for the third straight year. But at Apo, Lascuna is at his most dangerous.