Some of the biggest names on the Asian Tour, along with the brightest talents the Philippines can offer, will vie for Asia’s oldest national golf championship when Manila Southwoods, which is being prepared for championship conditions, hosts the 108th Philippine Open next month.
The Philippine Sports Commission has stepped in to ensure the event will be one to remember, putting up a $1 million (around P63 million) purse for the 72-hole championship beginning Nov. 12 at the world-class Masters course of the Southwoods complex in Carmona, Cavite.
“It is a tradition that the PSC certainly wants to continue with,” Chair Pato Gregorio said after making the pledge to make the tournament a major Asian Tour leg. “We wouldn’t want such a big event be put on the shelf.
“It’s the Philippine Open, it’s the pride of the country.”
The Philippine Open was first held in 1913 and has been staged annually except for seven editions. The first cancellation came in 2003 because of a name dispute, followed by 2013 and 2016 due to super typhoons that battered the country. The tournament was then shelved for four straight years from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frenchman Julien Sale won last year’s revival, also at the Masters course, and is expected to headline the foreign challenge seeking to prevent another Filipino from claiming the title after Miguel Tabuena triumphed in the 100th staging at Luisita.
Tabuena, who played in the final season of the now-defunct LIV 1.0 Golf League, will be joined in the starting field by fellow Philippine Asian Games team members Justin delos Santos and Carl Corpus. Tabuena, in particular, will have the benefit of his familiarity with one of the local courses he calls home.
That victory gave Tabuena his second Philippine Open title. At 32, he has become the face of local professional golf, while another former champion, Angelo Que, will also be given an equal chance at 47 as he enjoys one of the finest two-year stretches of his career.
Meanwhile, Manila Southwoods management has continued working on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Masters course since being awarded the hosting rights for the event for a second straight year.
It will be one of the narrowest versions of the Masters course the field will encounter when the tournament gets underway in the second week of November, with the rough being allowed to grow and the fairways reduced in width to punish errant tee shots.
The Asian Tour has also done its part to ensure the event pushes through as scheduled following the withdrawal of BingoPlus as title sponsor.
The online betting app decided not to back the event just over a month ago, threatening to derail the tournament before the Asian Tour and the National Golf Association of the Philippines, the sport’s governing body, pushed all the right buttons to get it back on track.
