Three-time winners Juvic Pagunsan and Angelo Que head the elite field competing in the returning The County Club Invitational on Feb. 2 to 5 at the exclusive TCC course in Canlubang, Laguna.
Also tipped to contend in the P5-million event serving as the kickoff leg of the 16-stop ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour are two-time champion Cassius Casas and multititled Miguel Tabuena.
Casas bested Tony Lascuña by one shot to bag his second TCC crown in 2014, before the event was momentarily shelved to give way to the renovation of the Tom Weiskopf-designed layout carved out of sugarcane field.
Other champions in the event’s 12 editions, conceptualized by ICTSI honcho Ricky Razon in 2003 to perpetuate the memory of his father and ICTSI founder Don Pocholo, were Lascuña, Jerome Delariarte, Artemio Murakami and the revered Frankie Miñoza.
Raring to upstage the Filipinos are five foreigners who crashed the Top 30 in the 2016 Order of Merit, led by No. 5 Korean-American Micah Shin. Joining Shin are No. 7 Guido Van der Valk of the Netherlands, No. 11 Toru Nakajima of Japan, No. 21 Park Jun Hyeok of Korea and No. 23 Ryoma Miki of Japan.—ROY LUARCA