Playing on sponsor’s exemption, Tabuena confident old injury won’t get in his way

Miguel Tabuena

It’s just one of those breaks in the game that a player of his caliber needs and Miguel Tabuena knows there is nothing else to do but to make the most of it.

Only two weeks after pulling out in the final round of the Korea Open due to an injury scare, Tabuena finds himself thrust into a grand stage as he battles some of the world’s best at the Barbasol Championship of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

“Wrist is good, just need to rest it,” said Tabuena on the eve of only his sixth start on the PGA, an opportunity that came after he was given one of the sponsor’s exemptions worked out by his management team.

The 27-year-old two-time Asian Tour champion has spent the past two weeks practicing in different courses and testing if his wrist is in perfect fit for the length and hazards of the Keen Trace Golf Club.

He wouldn’t have shown up at the venue if it wasn’t.

Tabuena is in a late flight for the first round, playing with American Daniel Wetterich and Brian Davis of England at 2:22 p.m. on the 10th tee. He returns the next day for an 8:57 a.m. tee time on No. 1.

When Tabuena, who endorses ICTSI, Lexus, Callaway and BOSS, last played on the PGA Tour stint at the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2017, he made the cut and finished tied for 64th. The event was won by Justin Thomas.

A year before that, Tabuena played twice on the PGA Tour, sharing 45th in the no-cut CIMB Classic in Malaysia and tied for 68th at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China.

He missed the cut in his first two PGA Tour stints at the Sony Open in January 2016 and the US Open in June of the same year.