Ex-nationals Mafy Singson, LK Go make pro debuts

Mafy Singson is ready, says coach Bong Lopez. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Mafy Singson and LK Go will make their play-for-pay debuts in the Ladies Professional Golf Tour on Tuesday in Davao, infusing new blood in the circuit that badly needs a shot in the arm.

Former longtime members of the Philippine team, Singson and Go will get their respective baptisms of fire in the ICTSI Apo Golf leg against a seasoned field over a course that demands so much with its tree-lined roughs and narrow, bending fairways.

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“She’s ready, we’ve already checked all the boxes,” Bong Lopez, the former national coach who has handled Singson since she was 12, told the Inquirer on Sunday. “If you talk of ready, she’s ready. But like everyone else, she needs to gain experience.

“Their coming to the tour as pros definitely changes the landscape of the tour,” Lopez went on. “It will make the tour more competitive, for sure. And we need that—fresh talent coming in every year.”

Go was a member of the gold medal-winning team anchored by Yuka Saso in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, and the standout from Cebu looms as one of the players to watch, being familiar with playing old, traditional layouts like the Cebu Country Club where she learned the game.

READ: Gold-hunting PH golf team armed with more experience for SEA Games

“They’ve served the Philippine team well already,” Lopez, also a former national player, said. “It’s time that they went to the next level.”

Like the men’s circuit that also gets going on Tuesday where another former national in Aidric Chan debuts as a pro, the ladies side will also play 10 legs with the Rancho Palos Verdes layout to host the next event next week.