OUT OF the Philippine Open loop the last three years, Wack Wack East hopes to be the old tough, host of Asia’s oldest national championship for the crack Asian Tour field.
Lengthened to international standards at more than 7,200 yards, the East course has been reinvented to test the mettle of the region’s leading players starting May 12.
Bunkers have been strategically added all over the well-manicured gem in the heart of Mandaluyong, all of them coming into play in the par 36-36 course.
“We have worked hard to prepare the course for the Open,” said Wack Wack president Philip Ella Juico, also a former Philippine Sports Commission chair.
Angelo Que, a multiple winner on the Asian Tour, won the last time Wack Wack hosted the Open.
Aside from longer holes, the field will have to tackle greens with different speeds.
The National Golf Association of the Philippines headed by Leandro Mendoza, Wack Wack and golf patron International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) raised the minimum prize fund of $300,000.