IT’S BEEN seven years since the country toasted a homegrown Philippine Open champion, and with the 98th edition to be played on a relatively short layout, several Filipino bets now loom as among the players to beat.
With Luisita in Tarlac hosting Asia’s oldest national championship starting tomorrow, premium will not be on length off the tees, but on accuracy and course familiarity, something which the touted foreigners don’t have going for them.
“I think it’s our best chance to reclaim the crown,” said Antonio Lascuña, the 44-year-old veteran who is not actually the longest hitter out there. “We have to take advantage of our course familiarity.”
The course which the great Robert Trent Jones Sr. carved out of the land’s natural terrain is a total thinking player’s course and cannot be overpowered.
One has to be familiar with Luisita’s bumps and rolls, something which Lascuña and the other Filipinos hope to pounce on.
Angelo Que was the last Filipino to win the Open, pulling it off in 2008 at Wack Wack East before foreigners dominated action. Australia’s Marcus Both won it last year.
Most of the foreign big guns will be coming in with a disadvantage, with Both getting his first look at the course on Facebook.
The local contingent will be at its strongest with Japan-based Juvic Pagunsan seeing action together with Que and Miguel Tabuena, who won a local event with a 22-under total.