Tourney’s biggest question: Can anyone tame TCC?

In the world of golf, what comes to mind when someone describes a course as “tough?”

How about a winning score of 13-over-par for a 72-hole championship involving the finest professional players in the land—counting our one and only Olympian?

One might think it is ridiculous, but it just happened. And Miguel Tabuena, he with the Olympic pedigree, fought for survival better than anyone else to come out on top and win the Don Pocholo Razon Invitational, the first pro event hosted by The Country Club in Laguna after undergoing a massive rebuilding two years ago.

Formerly known as just “one of the most exclusive courses in the land,” the TCC, through the vision of golf patron Ricky Razon, has been armed to the teeth after two years of painstaking work that it is now safe to call it the new beast this side of the earth.

There are still a couple of giveaway holes, but there a lot where players—no matter the skill level—will definitely give shots back, most especially on the 18th hole, which proved to be the graveyard of Juvic Pagunsan’s dream to win the Razon Invitational for the fourth time just last month.

The TCC’s finishing hole is a marvel to look at, definitely, but a hole that could make one shake in his FootJoys, Nikes, or what have you.

And it doesn’t even matter if one is holding a one-stroke lead or needing to erase a deficit.

Sportswriters were given the privilege to sample the layout more than a week ago, playing basically the same conditions as the Razon Invitational and when the winds were still blowing at their hardest.

There’s still a shade of the old The Country Club remaining, but one would immediately notice that there are no ladies’ tees, and that the white tees could easily pass as the blue tees of other clubs.

And the media tournament was basically a survival-of-the-fittest test that had everyone shaking their heads going into the shower room—in disgust because no one even came close to defeating the layout.

Pagunsan hit a perfect 200-yard approach on the 18th that missed its target by just inches. Yet the ball rolled off the green and into the water hazard behind for bogey.

Tabuena, then signing for a gutsy 72, won the tournament as Pagunsan needed par to seal a playoff.

That tournament had just one player breaking par, Japan’s Toru Nakajima who signed for a 70 in the opening round. Was it a fluke? Who knows? But the second round saw the lean field hitting a total of 2,404 shots and the scoring average was a mind-boggling 80.4 in the first two days.

Hole No. 18 of the Tom Weiskopf-designed layout is a monster par-4 that plays 516 yards. One needs to hit a slight draw over a right bending fairway to have the perfect angle to a very small green.

Yes, a slight draw. Draws off the tee give more distance to the player. But why a draw in a hole that breaks to the right?

Landing right-of-center of the fairway with a straight shot would most likely have the player hitting his second shot from a long bunker, as the fairway slopes hard to the right with the huge sand trap as the catch basin.

Pagunsan is one of the longer hitters in the land. He hit a perfect drive, and despite that, was left with that long of an approach shot that he needed a long iron in hand, not the usual short ones where he can play a looping shot to stop the ball on the green.

The rest is history as far as Pagunsan and that tournament is concerned.

And the 18th hole will play an integral part in local golf history to be written in the next two years as the Philippine Open will be played there, starting with the 99th edition on Thursday, where an international field will be taking part.

With players from all over coming to play, they will surely be the ones to spread the word around and everyone will believe why those sportswriters were shaking their heads in disbelief.