Pros gear up for rich TCC Invit’l

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s golfing elite gets one last chance to test the challenging The Country Club layout as they compete in the pro-am side of The Country Club Invitational today hoping to fine-tune their respective games in time for tomorrow’s big event.

Juvic Pagunsan and Angelo Que are all set for the P5 million championship, each vowing to shoot for a record fourth crown against a field teeming with talent and raring to get a crack at local golf’s richest purse of P1.5 million.

The top 36 players in last year’s ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit make up this year’s TCC Invitational field, guaranteeing a shootout among the cream of the crop in the four-day championship held in honor of ICTSI founder Enrique “Don Pocholo” Razon Sr. for the 11th straight year.

Pagunsan, Que and the other top pros will be teaming up with ICTSI’s guests from various sectors in the 18-hole pro-am serving as the appetizer to the TCC Invitational that has grown in stature and magnitude through the years, staking a record prize pot this year and drawing the best of the lot.

Pagunsan, who won in 2006 and 2008, used a strong finishing kick to beat Elmer Salvador by four strokes last year, matching Que’s three-title romp in 2007, 2010 and 2011. But the former Asian Tour and ICTSI PGT No. 1 is expected to have his hands full this time with a slew of players out to foil his back-to-back title bid.

Heading the star-studded challenger’s roster is Tony Lascuña, a former winner and the reigning OOM champion with three leg victories on the ICTSI-PGT last year, including a runaway triumph in the final leg at Wack Wack last December.

 Former champions Cassius Casas (2003), Jerome Delariarte (2005) and Artemio Murakami (2009) are also out to score a repeat while going for TCC Invitational breakthrough are last year’s ICTSI PGT leg winners Zanie Boy Gialon, Miguel Tabuena, Charles Hong, Marvin Dumandan, Carl Santos-Ocampo and Salvador, who is due for a big win at TCC.