Pagunsan hot favorite to make it four straight

Juvic Pagunsan, the hottest player in the Philippine Golf Tour, seeks to establish a record starting on Wednesday when the ICTSI Riviera Classic tees off at the complex’s tough-as-nails Langer Course in Silang, Cavite.

The winner of the Tour’s last three legs, Pagunsan will try
to win a fourth in a row against basically the same fields he
conquered in the Visayas swing in June.

After thumping international fields in the Marapara, Binitin and Sta. Barbara stops, Pagunsan remains to be the hands-on pick to win again, never mind if he ran into a brick wall in Angelo Que during last month’s $100,000-PGT Asia event at Southwoods in Carmona.

Tony Lascuña was the last man to win three straight legs, doing it once each in 2014 and 2016. But there has never been anyone to make it four-in-a-row.

The field will be coming off a long break after the Southwoods event where some of the Southeast Asian region’s finest played, as Pagunsan’s rivals like Jobim Carlos, Lascuña, Clyde Mondilla, among others, would also be coming in fresh in their quest to frustrate the Japan PGA tour regular.

Asia’s former No. 1, Pagunsan is looking to win another event at Riviera after lording it over a PGT Asia stop in March where he beat Que by seven.

Pagunsan dominated the field in the Visayas stop, winning in all sorts of ways—coming from behind or leading all the way.

Only Que was able to stop his streak at Southwoods, though Pagunsan was still in the thick of the fight heading into the final two rounds.