MANILA, Philippines - Elmer Salvador is all geared up to claim the ICTSI-Philippine Golf Tour’s Order of Merit title, unfazed by the presence of the country’s top shotmakers in the ICTSI-Canlubang Invitational which unfolds tomorrow at Cangolf’s north layout.
With two victories and four top 10 finishes, Salvador surged ahead in the OOM race with P692,152 in winnings, around P128,000 ahead of Marvin Dumandan heading into the final leg of the 10-stage, P10 million circuit.
That makes the Davaoeño shotmaker the player to beat in the P1 million event spread over three days at one of the country’s toughest courses whose character changes in every twirl of the wind.
“I know everybody will go all out for a win here but I’ll try to stay focused,” said Salvador, winner of the ICTSI-Sherwood leg and the ninth leg at ICTSI-Valley, in Filipino.
With Frankie Miñoza, Juvic Pagunsan, Angelo Que, Artemio Murakami, Mars Pucay and Tony Lascuna in the fold, Salvador will indeed have to endure the pressure from the tour’s big guns, who are all back in the hunt for the top P200,000 purse in the tournament put up by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. Miñoza and Pagunsan, in fact, are both gunning for their second victory in the circuit after topping the ICTSI-Pueblo de Oro and ICTSI-Apo legs, respectively, before they resumed their respective campaigns abroad.
Que is the other player to watch in the tournament with the reigning Philippine Open champion going for a win on his very first stint in the circuit backed by MJ Carr Golf Management, Pisanti, Srixon, FAMI, Business Mirror, Motorola, Omnisource, Nike Golf, Tiger Gatorade and Pepsico. Murakami, Pucay and Lascuna also hope to dish out fine form with Murakami coming off a joint 17th finish in the King’s Cup in Thailand last week, the last leg of the 2009 Asian Tour.
Also in pursuit of the crown are leg winners Danny Zarate, Ferdie Aunzo and Jay Bayron plus a host of others out to end the season with a win, including Gene Bondoc, Richard Sinfuego, Jerome Delariarte, Benjie Magada and Rey Pagunsan.