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The ICTSI Champion Tour will make its way to south Manila for the second stop at the Manila Southwoods Golf & Country Club, after last week’s first stop where Korean Lee Jeong-Hwa battled past Japan’s Fumika Kawagishi to be crowned her third career title and the second on the LPGT (Ladies Philippine Golf Tour). This event series is co-sanctioned by the TLPGA tour and LPGT with official world ranking points on offer.
The ICTSI Champion Tour: 2nd Stop marks just the second event on the LPGT this year also the second tournament on the TLPGT’s oversea leg which will stretch from Asia all the way to the USA. The event series falls the fifth and sixth official pit stop in the 2016 TLPGA Tour schedule.
The field will see a return of four of the top five finishers on the past Sunday, including Lee, Kawagishi, teen Thai Kanphanitnan Muangkhumsakul, and Taiwan’s Chen Yu-Ju (陳宇茹), headlining the list of 57 pro golfers and 12 amateurs from seven countries including England, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. Philippines top amateur Princess Superal, who finished at T3 last week, will be absent this week. The purse of the ICTSI Champion Tour: 2nd Stop hits US$75,000 with a champion prize check worth US$15,000.
A cut will be made for the three-day, 54-hole tournament to the low 50 and ties after Thursday’s second round. Players will be teeing off tomorrow at 7:00 in the morning.
At 6,544 yards long, the Manila Southwoods Golf & Country Club has served for an 18-hole Pro-Am event on Tuesday, with Chen Yu-Ju and her local teammates winning a US$300 bonus cash prize after a 22-under par finish.
The TLPGA Tour has been striving to increase its involvement in co-sanctioned tournament overseas. In addition to a growth of influence on the global scene, this will have the substantial benefit of building a stronger tour structure and, critically, allowing members to have more playing opportunities abroad for a more compact portfolio and simply richer ranking points. The cooperation between the TLPGT and the LPGT has been a successful example.
The ICTSI (International Container Terminal Services, Inc.) is the title sponsor of the LPGT for the fourth year. And the total number of tournaments has been raised from six in 2013 to nine in 2016.
Seven of the current top 20 on the TLPGA Tour money list, including no.8 Yu Pei-Lin (余珮琳), no.10 Chen Yu-Ju, no.12 Huang Ching (黃靖), no.14 Chen Min-Jou (陳敏柔), no.15 Yeh Hsin-Ning (葉欣寧), no.17 Lynn Chou (邱齡緹) , and no.19 Pan Yen Ling (潘彥伶) will lead a biggest 29-player squad from Taiwan. 2015 TLPGA tour Money Winner Kuo Ai-Chen (郭艾榛) is also looking to turn her season with a strong performance this week.
Local hopes seeking to secure the win for home fans include two Symetra Tour players, Dottie Ardina and Mia Piccio. Ardina, especially, has recorded three victories last year, topping the LPGT stats of the most titles won. With one win each, American Corpus Cristina and Korea’s Hwang Ye-Nah are also looking to add to their trophy case. |
