WITH three of the country’s finest pros, including defending champion Juvic Pagunsan, out of the field, Antonio Lascuña and Clyde Mondilla carry the Philippines’ chances when the $100,000 Aboitiz Invitational tees off today at Wack Wack East in Mandaluyong.
Miguel Tabuena is in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and Angelo Que and Pagunsan have commitments abroad, leaving Lascuña and Mondilla—the winningest players in the local tour—as Filipinos with the brightest chances against a bumper Asian Development Tour field.
Jay Bayron is also in the field and is also being fancied. The 37-year-old, who used to caddy for President Duterte at Apo Golf in the late 1990s, placed second to American Berry Henson in the 2011 edition of the Philippine Open over the tree-lined layout.
“I have some sort of unfinished business here,” Bayron, a former Order of Merit champion of the ADT, told the Inquirer in Filipino last week when the event was launched. “It (winning) would totally erase that heartbreaking loss.”
Bayron played so well that week but still lost by a stroke to the American, who enjoyed some lucky breaks in the final round, counting a 40-foot, downhill putt on No. 7 which could have easily found the water hazard had it not gone in for birdie.