The country’s top guns and a host of Thai aces gear up for another fierce showdown as action in the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour resumes tomorrow, Tuesday with the ICTSI Manila Southwoods Ladies Championship at the Legends course in Carmona, Cavite.
Princess Superal, Pauline del Rosario, Cyna Rodriguez and Chihiro Ikeda set out against the likes of multi-titled LPGT winner Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, Supakchaya Pattaranakruean, Saraporn Chamchoi and Chonlada Chayanun in what promises to be a slambang chase for top honors in the 54-hole championship serving as the sixth leg of LPGT’s 2018-19 circuit put up by ICTSI.
They actually all saw action in last week’s The Country Club Ladies Invitational ruled by world No. 1 Sung Hyun Park with amateur Yuka Saso humbling the local and foreign pros by taking up the challenge to the fancied Korean in all three days and eventually taking runner-up honors.
Superal, the reigning LPGT Order of Merit champion, was the best-placed at fourth behind Saso and LPGA campaigner Dottie Ardina with the diminutive former US Girls’ Junior champion hard-pressed to dish out a better, stronger performance to get a crack at another crown.
Focus will also be on young Korean Hwang Min Jeong, who edged Superal by one to win the Splendido Ladies Classic last January to mark her pro debut in style. But Hwang will be as much tested as the rest of the 46-player field all primed up for battle in scorching heat at the bunker-laden par-72 layout.
Eleven amateurs are also in the fold, including Sofia Chabon, Eagle Ace Superal, Mafy Singson, Laurea Duque, Sam Dizon, Sunshine Baraquiel and Junia Gabasa.
Other pros seeing action in the tournament organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. and backed by Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, K&G Golf Apparel, BDO, Sharp, KZG, PLDT, Empire Golf and Sports and M.Y. Shokai Technology, Inc. are Malaysian siblings Aishah, Shahira and Ezrina Che Omar, Japanese Ayaka Morimitsu and Natsuki Kishikawa, Koreans Lee Jeong Hwa, Hyun Ji Rho and Choeun Bang, Taiwanese Hsien Wen Huang and Hsuan Ping Chang, Tatiana Wijaya of Indonesia and Lisa Kang of the US.
