Rich Luisita leg to decide merit champ

AFTER holding off the country’s top two players on Saturday, Miguel Tabuena shoots for a second straight win starting tomorrow when the first Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open tees off at majestic Luisita.

Tabuena rallied from four strokes down to win by four shots over Antonio Lascuña and Angelo Que for the ICTSI Open Championship at Wack Wack East, a layout that has a striking similarity with Luisita.

Lascuña is also entered and is raring to atone for that Saturday foldup where he scored a career-worst 79 in a final round and make a case for a fourth straight Order of Merit title with two legs remaining.

Tabuena, after pocketing the P650,000 prize at Wack Wack, zoomed to the lead in the OOM. The winner in Tarlac will get P450,000. Basically the same field will be vying for honors at Luisita, save for Que.

Luisita is under a new ownership in restaurateur Martin Lorenzo and the tree-lined layout will be hosting a full field professional tournament for just the second time in 26 years.

Other participants include Jay Bayron, Rufino Bayron, Cassius Casas, Mars Pucay, Elmer Salvador, Zanieboy Gialon and Frankie Miñoza, who ruled the 1989 President’s Cup at Luisita.   Musong R. Castillo