FIERY Miguel Tabuena looms as the country’s best bet for the title in the 98th edition of the Philippine Open slated Dec. 17 to 20 at the Luisita Golf and Country Club.
The 21-year-old Tabuena leads the Top 32 players in the Philippine Golf Tour’s Order of Merit, who earned berths in the longest-running professional tournament in Asia where a total prize purse of $300,000 is at stake.
Tabuena emerged as the top money earner in the domestic tour and holds the course record of 22-under-par at Luisita, which makes him all the more among the favorites to win the last tournament in the Asian Tour this year.
“If he stays on course, he might be able to win his first Philippine Open,” said National Golf Association of the Philippines president Carlos Coscoluella in Tuesday’s session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate.
The closest the young Filipino golfer came to winning the Open was in 2012 when he trailed eventual champion Mardan Mamat of Singapore with just a single stroke entering the final day only to miss one shot after the other to finish with an 81.
Mamat will be back this year, and so does defending champion Marcus Both of Australia as they head the charge of the foreign players who will vie for the champion’s purse worth $60,000.
In all, 92 foreigners make up the 128-players field, including the top four amateurs in the country today who get to be invited by the NGAP, according to federation secretary-general Jose ‘Pepot’ Inigo, who appeared with Coscoluella in the session presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
The last three stagings of the tournament were held at Wack Wack, but through the initiative of NGAP director Martin Lorenzo, the meet was brought to Tarlac in a bid to bring the Open around the country.
“We want a large part of the Filipinos to be able to watch the best golfers in Asia in action,” said Coscolluela.
Artemio Murakami was the last local player to win the Open in 2010 held at the Valley Golf and Country Club.