Splendido leg tees off with Tabuena, Gialon fancied

Two months removed from the last of his many victories, Miguel Tabuena returns to the site where the first of those professional triumphs happened as he banners a 60-man field in the P2-million ICTSI Splendido Taal championship that gets going on Tuesday.

The winner in a playoff over Clyde Mondilla at Luisita last March, Tabuena will be playing locally for the first time and is excited about returning to the hilly layout where he won in 2012 and then again three years later.

“This [course] is very close to me,” Tabuena said during Monday’s pro-am. “It’s nice to be back here. The game is there, but I just have to be more patient because I’ve not been playing as many tournaments as I want to.”

After winning in Tarlac, Tabuena played in Thailand which forced him to skip the Caliraya stop of the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc., before a mix-up in his visa requirements for Korea forced him out of action longer.

Ladies also get going

Meanwhile, an accompanying 54-hole ladies tournament will also start on Tuesday, with Chihiro Ikeda shooting for a second straight win.

Tabuena will be trying to conquer basically the same field here, although one of them, Zanieboy Gialon, will be entering the 72-hole event with so much confidence after winning the Caliraya leg last month.

“I like my chances, that’s for sure,” Gialon, a product of the defunct National Caddies Open program, said. “That win certainly boosted my belief that I can get the job done.”

Mondilla, meanwhile, will try to snap a two-tournament streak of second place finishes over a course that rewards well-placed, bombs-away drives. INQ