Rodriguez, Ardina head local Champion Tour cast

Cyna Rodriguez and Dottie Ardina. Photo from Inquirer Golf

CYNA Rodriguez and Dottie Ardina banner the local challenge next week when the kickoff leg of the ICTSI Ladies Tour, the $75,000 Champion Tour, tees off at ravine-laden Splendido Golf Club in Tagaytay.

Rodriguez has taken time away from the US LPGA and is, hands-down, the country’s best bet against the best in the event, which is part of the Taiwan LPGA.

Ardina, meanwhile, will be seeing action on home soil for the first time in a year, eager to improve on a dismal finish in the Ladies Open last year at Southlinks in Las Piñas.

Rodriguez is in the country honing her game for her return to the LPGA.

Thailand’s Kanphanitnan Muangkhumaskul, the winner of the Hitachi Ladies Classic in Taiwan, and five other members of the top 20 on the Taiwan LPGA money list are vying in Tagaytay, making up the formidable foreign challenge.

The event will be the first of two slated in succeeding weeks, with Manila Southwoods to host the other one.

Mia Piccio, who is also trying to earn an LPGA card in the US, last year’s LPGT Sherwood winner Sarah Ababa, Fil-Am Cristina Corpuz, who ruled the LPGT Luisita, former SEA Games gold medalist Chihiro Ikeda, and former Philippine Ladies Open champion and LPGT leg winner Jayvie Agojo are the other notable Filipinos in the fold.

Lee Jeong-hwa of South Korea, the former Philippine Ladies Open champ, and countrymen Kang Ji-won, Grace Lee and Gu Na-eun and also on the roster together with Japan’s Tomoko Takahashi, Fumika Kawagishi, Ai Asano, Senno Yasufuku and Mayumi Chinzei, and Aretha Pan and Dianne Luke of Malaysia. Musong R. Castillo