Lewton to defend PH Open crown

Englishman Steve Lewton, Singaporean Mardan Mamat and Australian Marcus Both will head a big foreign contingent out to humble the locals when the Centennial Solaire Philippine Open begins Wednesday at The Country Club in Santa Rosa, Laguna.

Lewton is the defending champion of the event staking a record total purse of $600,000 while Mamat and Both won the 2012 and 2014 editions, respectively, at Wack Wack Mandaluyong.

Also joining the 72-hole event offering a top prize of $108,000 are One Asia campaigners Sam Burrell, Ryan Carter, Oskar Arvidsson and Michael Choi of Australia, Malaysians Nicolas Fung, Kim Kwang and Keegan He Sen, Jazz Janewattananond, Thammanoon Sriroj and Natipong Srithong of Thailand, and American Matthew Negri.

Others tipped to contend in the tournament co-sanctioned by OneAsia and co-organized by the National Golf Association of the Philippines and Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. are PGT Asia mainstays Guido Van der Valk of the Netherlands, American Nicolas Paez, Japanese Toru Nakajima, Macedonian Peter Stojanovski and Australian Nathan Park.

Eighteen countries, including Andorra, Macedonia, Sweden, Myanmar, Colombia, Great Britain and the Netherlands, are represented in the blue-ribbon event. —ROY LUARCA