Elite field starts chase of local golf’s richest prize at TCC
Angelo Que shoots for an unprecedented fourth win. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
STA. ROSA, LAGUNA—The local pro tour’s toughest test that dangles the biggest purse after a proverbial survival of the fittest gets going on Monday with one history-seeking former champion coming into the week preparing himself for the mental grind more than anything else.
“I worked on my mental game for this,” Angelo Que, who has a chance to become the first four-time winner of the P6-million The Country Club (TCC) Invitational, said as the field takes on the challenge of the 7,735-yard, wind-buffeted TCC course.
“That record is an added motivation for me.”
The event is limited to its past champions and the top 30 in last year’s Order of Merit (OOM) ranking in the Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) and only the best have won this in the past.
Que won in 2007, 2010 and 2011, and apart from breaking a long drought, the fourth championship will ease him past Juvic Pagunsan.
Guido van der Valk, a longtime PH resident, is the defending champion. And the Dutchman also believes that it is not just sheer length that’s needed to win the P2 million top prize.
“All of your game needs to be sharp to play this course,” said Van der Valk, whose first of two wins came in 2020. “As long as I hit it good, I’m long enough to play the course.
“I will need to play great golf. As it is a tough course, it will take every skill as a golfer to get it around, technical and mental.”
Long and short of it
Another long hitter given a fair chance is Clyde Mondilla, the former PH Open champion, while the shortest hitter almost everyone is wary of is the 53-year-old Antonio Lascuña, who finished second to Miguel Tabuena in the season-ending Match Play last year despite giving up a lot off the tees.
Jonel Ababa was the OOM winner last year and is as well-rounded as anyone else in the field is.
“I am a lot shorter than all of the young players,” Lascuña, who still tied for third last year, said in Filipino. “That’s why I need to position my drives to the most ideal places and hope that I can compensate with my 3-wood or hybrid clubs.”
Organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. and supported by PGTI official apparel Kampfortis Golf, the event has a mix of experienced players like past winners Miguel Tabuena (2017) and Micah Shin (2018) and the country’s rising stars. INQ
