TARLAC—It’s not only Luisita which is happy that the Philippine Open, Asia’s oldest national golf championship, is being held there for the first time in its 98-year history.
Robert Trent Jones Jr., son of the late great designer Robert Sr., is in town, looking at how magnificent his father’s creation has stood out the test of time and thankful that the Open finally came here.
“He never failed to mention to anyone that this (Luisita) is one of his best creations—ever,” Jones Jr. told the Inquirer while admiring the view of the 18th green and the opening tee together with Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, whose family owned the exclusive layout before selling it last year.
“This layout is high up there, as far as he was concerned. He mentioned this in the same breath as his other creations like Spyglass Hill [in the United States],” Jones Jr. went on.
Spyglass Hill in California was once listed No. 5 in the America’s Top 100 courses list.
Jones Jr. even showed the Inquirer some pictures when he was around 23 or 24 years old, being the apprentice of his dad while working on Luisita in the mid-1960s.
“We were about the same age then,” he said, while pointing to a smiling Cojuangco. “This course has also helped me shape my career [as a course designer].”
Jones Jr. is set to see his projects in Vietnam and China, putting his creations around the world to the 270 mark.