CYNA Rodriguez hopes to get back at Princess Superal in another early face-off of the country’s leading lady pros in the P750,000 ICTSI Eastridge Ladies Invitational, which unwraps Wednesday at the Eastridge Golf Club in Binangonan, Rizal.
Rodriguez struggled in her first duel with the newly turned pro at Sherwood early this month which Superal ruled in a four-way playoff. But the LPGA Tour veteran is upbeat of her chances this week although she stressed the need for consistency in a bid to atone for his joint sixth-place effort at Sherwood.
“I need to get back my consistency,” said Rodriguez, who dominated the first two years of the country’s first-ever ladies pro circuit sponsored by ICTSI before gaining an LPGA Tour card last year.
“I could shoot low but there are days I would awfully score high, too. But coach Bong (Lopez) and I are working on it now. Hopefully, good results will happen in the last two legs of this year’s circuit,” said Rodriguez, who will set out with Superal and Orchard leg winner Chihiro Ikeda in the featured 7:40 a.m. flight.
Like Rodriguez, Superal also expressed confidence as she guns for back-to-back triumphs in the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc., armed with an improved power game and a superb short game that has anchored her number of victories during her amateur days, including the 2014 US Girls’ Junior Championship.
“We have put emphasis on how to improve her length in practice. And it’s beginning to show in her game,” said Lopez, who also handles Superal and the rest of the members of Team The Country Club. “She’s going for her second win and I think the course is perfect for her game.”
But a slew of others is also out to spoil the projected Cyna-Princess duel, including Ikeda, who is raring to nail her second win after topping the Orchard leg of the circuit, backed by Custom Clubmakers, adidas, KZG, Sharp, Summit Mineral Water, Srixon, Champion, TaylorMade, Ping, Yamaha and Pacsports, last June.
Focus will also be on last year’s leg winners Sarah Ababa (Sherwood) and Cristina Corpus (Luisita) and former leg champion Jayvie Agojo, and on the TCC bets, headed by Pauline del Rosario, who emerged the best Filipino finisher at joint 13th, ahead of Superal and Rodriguez, in last week’s Thailand Ladies Masters, Thailand’s premier pro championship.
Del Rosario, the reigning Thailand Ladies Amateur champion, drew with Ababa and Sylvia Torres in the 7:10 a.m. group while Bernice Olivarez-Ilas, who also upstaged the pros by winning the Beverly Place leg in Pampanga last April, tees off first at 7 a.m. with former Philippine Ladies Open champion Heidi Chua and Anya Tanpinco.