Juvic Pagunsan leads 6 PH bets in $2M Johor Open

JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia—Padraig Harrington of Ireland is gearing up for a tough title defense when he takes on the elite cast at the Iskandar Johor Open starting
Thursday.

Harrington, who has yet to win this year, will battle against the 2010 British Open champion and the highest ranked player this week Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, an in-form Anthony Kim of the United States and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, a three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit champion at the Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club.

Filipino Juvic Pagunsan, the new Order of Merit leader, will lead the Asian charge alongside Jeev Milkha Singh of India, Lu Wei-chih of Chinese Taipei, who has won twice this year, and Siddikur of Bangladesh in the $2 million event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour.

Other PH entries are Artemio Murakami, winner of the inaugural edition of this event in 2007, Elmer Salvador, Antonio Lascuna, Mars Pucay and rookie Miguel Tabuena, who posted a career-best fourth place in his last tournament, the Mercuries Taiwan Masters, two weeks ago.

Harrington, a three-time Major champion, has been struggling to hit top form since winning the Iskandar Johor Open last year and he knows his ambitions of a successful title defense will be faced by a strong challenge this week.

“There are 156 guys here this week, and most—if not all—of them are very good players,” said Harrington. “So you’re going to have to play very well and hole a lot of putts to win.”

A weary Thongchai, who has yet to miss the cut on the Asian Tour this year, will be playing in his eight straight week but is upbeat of winning a third title in Malaysia if he can get his putter working.

“I’m feeling a bit tired. I haven’t been home for eight weeks but I’m feeling very comfortable with my game,” said Thongchai, who turned 42 last week.