PH to host Nomura Cup at Masters

The Philippines will host the prestigious Nomura Cup golf championship in late June and as one of its requests—according to a very reliable Inquirer source—the governing Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) asked that the event be held at the Masters layout of the Manila Southwoods in Carmona, Cavite.

Also known as the Asia-Pacific golf Team Championship, the Nomura Cup is played just once every two years where each country will field four players a day with only the top three scores counting. The event started in 1963 as a tri-nation tournament featuring the Philippines, China and Japan, but it has since bloomed into one of the most prestigious championships in the region.

“The course is in great shape all-year round, but Southwoods has promised that it will make the Masters at par, if not better, to international standards come the event,” the source said.

Despite being a founding member, the Philippines has never won the Nomura Cup, with two second place finishes being its best. Australia and Japan have won it eight times each.

Some of the best Australian, Japanese and Indian players ever to turn pro played in the Nomura Cup. Anirban Lahiri, a regular on the US Professional Golfers’ Association Tour, suited up for India in 2007.

Wack Wack hosted the first edition in 1963 before doing it again in 1971, where the Philippines had its second runner-up finish, and in 1991.

With the Jack Nicklaus-designed Masters course being voted as among the best in Asia for most of the last two decades, the APGC, which is under the world governing R&A (The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews), made it very clear that it wanted the June 26-July 1 event to be held there.