Razor-sharp Juvic man to beat at Del Monte

Juvic Pagunsan has signed up to play in the ICTSI Del Monte Championship beginning Wednesday and is undoubtedly the player to beat in the 72-hole championship.

Pagunsan will be taking razor-sharp form to the tree-lined layout in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon and will be seeking to win a fifth straight PGT event.

After victories in the Bacolod, Negros, Iloilo and Riviera stops, Pagunsan returned to his base in the Japan PGA Tour where he posted a runner-up finish and a ninth-place effort in Hokkaido and Fukuoka, respectively, last month.

No player has won more than four legs in a single PGT season. Antonio Lascuña, on the strength of four victories in 2016, won the Order of Merit that year.

He will also be in the field this week, just days after losing in sudden death to Reymon Jaraula at Pueble de Oro in Cagayan de Oro.

Pagunsan’s entry could work well for Jaraula, who can play pressure-free this week with the bulls-eye on Pagunsan’s back now.

A host of others are also raring to go and foil the fancied Negrense, including the homegrown bets ready to cash in on their familiarity with the tight, tree-lined mountaintop layout and fuel their respective title drives.

Proud Del Monte son Clyde Mondilla, for one, is out to redeem himself from a number of mediocre finishes after humbling a slew of foreign aces and the country’s top guns to snare the Philippine Open crown at The Country Club in April.

“I’m so excited to get going and Juvic’s presence adds up to the challenge,” said Mondilla, who vowed to use an attacking kind of game on a course he’s very familiar with. “I’ll attack even the tight par-4s since I know where to place my shots here.”