Dumandan seeks repeat at John Hay next week

Marvin Dumandan will try to fend off a formidable field starting Wednesday next week when he guns for a repeat victory in the ICTSI-Camp John Hay Championship in Baguio.

The tournament, which has been extended to 72 holes from 54, dangles a winner’s purse of P450,000 from the total pot of P2.5 million. Six other legs in this season’s ICTSI circuit will be played for four rounds.

Elmer Salvador, fifth in the recent Asian Tour Solaire Open at Wack Wack East, and the veteran Mars Pucay and Jay Bayron are the other big guns who have confirmed participation.

Salvador was in the hunt all week long only to lose steam in the final round with a two-over-par 74, giving him a level 288 over the heavily wooded Mandaluyong layout.

Pucay finished a rung lower than Salvador despite opening with a 69, while Bayron, the reigning Asean Development Tour Order of Merit champion, finished inside the Top 20 despite never cracking par in all four days.

The circuit, organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. and sponsored by International Container Terminal Services Inc., will head to Batangas for the Calatagan Challenge on May 8 to 10, with Orchard hosting the next leg, another P2.5-million event, on May 22 to 25.

The Orchard leg is also an ADT stop together with the Aboitiz Invitational at Cebu Country Club.