Namchok Tantipokhakul and Wisut Artjanawat try to make three-for-three for Thailand as they banner the stellar international cast vying for top honors in the ICTSI Manila Southwoods Championship, which gets going Tuesday (July 9) at the Legends course in Carmona, Cavite.
Tantipokhakul rallied with a 67 in the final round and nipped Finland’s Teemu Putkonen by one in the kickoff leg of the Philippine Golf Tour Asia third season at Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac last April while Artjanawat charged back from six down and stunned a slew of Taiwanese to snatch the Taiwan PGA Open crown last May, the first PGT Asia co-sanctioned event abroad.
That should make the Thai duo the marked players in the upcoming $100,000 event sponsored by ICTSI, which drew 121 bidders, including those from Singapore, Laos, England, Korea, Japan, Australia, Syria, Malaysia, Colombia, India, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Finland, Macedonia, South Africa, the Netherlands and the US.
But the Thais will surely draw much of the attention given their strong showing in the first two legs of the region’s emerging circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc. and backed by PLDT Enterprise, Meralco, BDO and PGT Asia official apparel Pin High.
Others tipped to contend for the top $17,500 from the country’s perennial regional rivals are Parama Chansue, Wongsakorn Choowong, Chonlatit Chuenboonngam, Ratchapol Jantavara, Sutijet Kooratapisan, Pasavee Lertvilai, Donlapatchai Niyomchon, Natthapong Niyomchon,Tawai Polthai, Puk Pradittan, Varanyu Rattanaphiboonkij and Pachara Sakulyon.
But a host of talented foreign pros are also in the fold, eager to stamp their class over the flat, bunker-laden course with sleek putting surface set at par 71, led by former The Country Club Invitational champion Micah Shin of the US and former PGTA leg winners David Gleeson of Australia along with the long-hitting Tim Stewart, also from Down Under, two-time PGT leg titlist and Manila-based Dutch Guido Van der Valk, Spain’s Marcos Pastor, comebacking Brett Munson of the US and Singapore’s Koh Deng Shan and Gregory Foo.
Jhonnel Ababa, the winningest player on the circuit with four championships, and defending champion Jay Bayron headline the crack list of local aces all primed up to slug it out in what looms to be a four-day duel of power and putting at one of the Nicklaus-designed layouts at the sprawling Southwoods complex.
Bayron, the lone Filipino player to compete in the recent PGT Asia Taiwan, led the assault of the course, then played to a par-72 last year, with a 26-under 262, edging American John Michael O’Toole by one.
Other Pinoys in the roster are Michael Bibat, James Ryan Lam, Tony Lascuña, Justin Quiban, Joenard Rates, Elmer Salvador and the comebacking Clyde Mondilla and Jobim Carlos, the last two Order of Merit winners of the PGT who are coming off a break due to various injuries.
