The Philippine Masters will continue to have a home, at least up until next year.
The Masters, one of the country’s most prestigious tournaments, will stay at Villamor in Pasay after the organizing Philippine Golf Tour and club officials led by Lt. Gen. Galileo Gerard Kintanar Jr., also the commanding general of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), agreed to the staging of the P2-million event until 2019.
Clyde Mondilla won the revival of the event last year at the tree-lined, tough-as-nails layout with a six-under-par total and will be gunning for a repeat starting May 23.
Colo Ventosa, the general manager of the local tour, sealed the deal with Kintanar.
“It’s all systems go,” Kintanar, who recently took over management of the golf course, declared.
“That’s our commitment. The PAF acknowledges that Villamor is the Masters’ original home, and we are happy to be part of this international event,” Kintanar added.
Kintanar has grand plans for the layout, regarded as one of the toughest tests in golf in the land, as he tries to make Villamor even tougher.
After this year’s Masters, the layout will undergo a major facelift as the opening hole, a relatively short par-4, will be made into a par-5 and No. 2 to be reduced to a par-4 with an island green.
“Looking at the blueprint, it (change) sure appears positive. It should be exciting to see how our pros will adapt to these changes—two tough holes to open the round,” Kintanar said.
Mondilla edged Tony Lascuña, Jhonnel Ababa and American Nicolas Paez to win with a 282 aggregate that only downplayed how tough the course played and will play next week.
“We’ll have some of the international players who joined last year in the field again,” said Ventosa, who recently met with Kintanar and Villamor GM Guillermo Molina Jr. to finalize plans and ensure the smooth staging of the blue-ribbon event sponsored by ICTSI.