Valley hosting RP Open Dec. 13

This year’s Philippine Open golf championship will have one of the country’s toughest par-3s as a finishing hole.

Valley Golf and Country Club, the rolling layout up in hilly Antipolo, has been chosen as the site of Asia’s oldest national championship set to tee off with its 94th edition on Dec. 13 possibly with an all-Filipino roster.

The Inquirer learned this yesterday after the club  begged off from hosting the 12th leg of the ICTSI circuit next month to get the South course in tip-top shape for the  RP Open, which returns to the club for the first time since 1991.

“We want to get the course into international championship shape,” Bong Vilchez, the club’s manager-golf director, explained when asked why the club begged off from the ICTSI circuit which it has been a part of since its first year.

Tour officials are reportedly working on tapping Mimosa in Pampanga as replacement for the Valley leg with the Canlubang stop now serving as prelude to the Open.

Dennis Paulson of the United States won the last Open held at Valley,nipping Taiwan’s Lu Wen-ter in a gripping playoff.

Valley has since tried to get the Open back, the last in 2003 after transforming the tree-laden South course into an all-weather layout.

Having the Open at Valley is noted for its par-3 finishing hole that requires an uphill tee shot over a huge lagoon to an undulating green that’s about 220 yards away and guarded by sand traps.