ICTSI Manila Southwoods is expected to be a slambang affair between the country’s best golfers after top guns Juvic Pagunsan and Frankie Minoza confirmed their participation in the event on June 27 to 30 at Southwoods’ Masters Course.
The two aces will join Asian Tour regulars Angelo Que and Mars Pucay and the Top 10 players in the current ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit ranking, marking the first time this year that the tour’s big guns will be slugging it out in a local event.
Pagunsan, on a break from the lucrative Japan PGA Tour, will be seeing action only in his second local tournament with the reigning local OOM champion and Asian Tour No. 1 failing to defend his crown at ICTSI Eastridge Classic early this month with a joint seventh place finish.
But the smooth-swinging shotmaker is expected to figure well in the upcoming event, which serves as the sixth leg of the ICTSI PGT, together with Minoza, who closed out last year’s circuit with a stirring come-from-behind victory at Wack Wack.
Que, a former three-time Asian Tour winner, is also expected to contend for the crown even as he seeks to snap a long spell together with the veteran Pucay with the rest of the fancied bets likewise priming up for a battle royale for the top P450,000 purse.
The event is the second of five four-day tournaments lined up by the Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. this year./Correspondent Jonas Panerio