Anybody’s race as LPGT restarts at Aoki

The first of two straight wide-open legs marking the latest restart of the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour (LPGT) tees off on Wednesday at the Aoki layout for the ICTSI Eagle Ridge Classic in General Trias in Cavite.

With Princess Superal begging off to continue her campaign in the lucrative Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association (LPGA), no clear cut favorite stands out when the P750,000 event gets going, although there are a lot of subplots that grab interest.

The biggest of those being Harmie Constantino looking to repeat at the well-manicured course, having won her maiden pro event last March over Superal.

And then there’s Chanelle Avaricio continuing to seek a breakthrough pro title, former Southeast Asian Games big gun Chihiro Ikeda looking to rediscover her old form and ex-National team member Sunshine Baraquiel trying to put the lessons learned from a failed US LPGA attempt to good use in the 54-hole event.

Promising talents

But there are also other promising talents in the lean field, with Daniella Uy also playing with the hunger to dominate as a pro after a very promising amateur career.

Next week, the field heads to chilly Tagaytay for the Highlands leg even as the organizers have already lined up two more legs at Riviera Golf Club in Silang for next month to keep the touring ladies in shape and give them even more motivation to polish their games.

The event will still be imposing strict safety measures to guarantee the health and safety of all those involved as per the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) guidelines and protocols. INQ