Miñoza sets sights on rich Japan PGA tiff

Fresh from his inspiring victory last Sunday, Frankie Miñoza hopes to keep his form and dish out another solid game that has marked his campaign in the Japan PGA Tour this season as the ace Filipino shotmaker leads the field in the rich Japan PGA Championship beginning today in Fukuoka, Japan.

Miñoza is coming into the $110,000 championship at the Queen’s Hills Golf Club with a high-level of confidence following his stirring victory in the Fujisankei Classic Sunday where he fought back from a seven-stroke deficit to beat Japanese Tsukasa Watanabe by one stroke.

The triumph did not only snap Miñoza’s three-year title drought in the lucrative circuit and erase the stigma of his string of late-round collapses in the past, but it also made him a strong contender in the prestigious Order of Merit derby.

In fact, Miñoza, whose winning prize of $183,000 raised his earnings this year to $365,000 (around P18 million), has jumped from No. 7 to second spot in the money race, behind two-leg winner Shingo Katayama of Japan.

It was the highest place Miñoza has reached in his 11-year campaign in the circuit, and observers note that if he continues to play this well, he might even surpass his equally-successful campaigns in 1990 and 1998 where he emerged Asia’s top player.

The 41-year-old Miñoza, who has made the cut in all six tournaments this year, has also committed himself to play in the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup slated May 5-17 at the Rokko Kokusai Golf Club in Hyogho, Japan.

For many, his superb form may also rekindle his interest in the US PGA Tour although the reticent Bukidnon native has time and again refused to be lured by the glitz and prestige of the world’s richest circuit since the prize money in Japan is almost similar to that of the US PGA and field not as tough as that of the latter.