C. Azucarera Open blasts off; Tabuena & Co. shine

Miguel Tabuena shoots to put a lock on the Order of Merit title and cap a productive season when the first Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open tees off today at Luisita.

Fresh off a rousing come-from-behind win last week at Wack Wack, Tabuena is the player to beat in the P2.5-million tournament where he will be ranged against basically the same field he put to the shade at the East course in Mandaluyong.

That was Tabuena’s third victory for the year, and a third-place finish in Tarlac will earn him his first OOM title at age 21 while unseating three-time defending champion Antonio Lascuña.

Tabuena underscored his readiness to claim a second successive victory after leading his team, also made up of Martin Lorenzo, Eric Tensuan and Aian Arcilla, to the top in yesterday’s traditional pro-am. They tallied a 16-under 56.

Lascuña, incidentally, blew a four-shot lead at Wack Wack to drop out of the OOM lead. He is seeking no less than a win and a fourth-place finish or worse for Tabuena to be able to keep his title.

“I need my putting to click,” Tabuena said, noting that Luisita is a relatively shorter course compared to the ones he, Lascuña and the local tour’s other big guns are used to playing on the Asian Tour.

This will be just the second time in 26 years that the exclusive layout north of Manila will be hosting a pro event.

Under a new ownership, Luisita staged a leg on the ICTSI tour last May won by Charles Hong. Tabuena finished 11th.

Hong is also entered together with the other notables like Jay Bayron, Mars Pucay, Clyde Mondilla and the revered Frankie Miñoza.  Musong R. Castillo