Lascuña, Casas rejoin ICTSI Summit Classic

MANILA, Philippines - Tony Lascuña and Cassius Casas take a break from their hectic Asian Tour campaign as they rejoin the local aces in the ICTSI Summit Point Golf Classic, which gets going Oct. 8 at the wind-raked Summit Point Golf Club in Batangas.

Lascuña, who lost the Selangor Masters crown in a playoff in Malaysia last month, seeks a fifth leg crown on the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour while Casas is raring to score a follow-up to his victory at ICTSI Iloilo Golf Challenge last July that snapped a long spell.

The 46-year-old Lascuña is actually out to resume his winning ways on the circuit where he swept the last three legs in Bacolod, Riviera and Southwoods in emphatic fashion before heading to Asian Tour.

“It will be nice to play again against our local pros and try to nail another win,” said Lascuña, on his way to a third straight Order of Merit crown in the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.

“But it will be tough since everybody will be going all out to stop me. But I’ll be ready,” added Lascuña who has piled up winnings of P3,149,065 after 13 legs of the 16-stage tour sponsored by International Container Terminals Services, Inc.

He’s way ahead of second running Elmer Salvador, who has P1,666,925 and No. 3 Miguel Tabuena, who has P1,585,168 but expects a tough outing in the upcoming P1 million event against ICTSI leg winners Charles Hong, Jun Rates, Rufino Bayron, Jay Bayron and Zanie Boy Gialon, who ruled the last leg at ICTSI Northwoods Championship last month.

Other fancied players in the fold are Carl Santos-Ocampo, Mharl Fernando, Jhonnel Ababa, Michael Bibat, Mars Pucay, Edward Reyes, Jessie Balasabas, Gerald Rosales, Elmer Saban and Benjie Magada.

Meanwhile, the leading pros will test the par-72 layout in Tuesday’s pro-am where they will be paired with their amateur partners and guests from the event’s chief backers, including Nike Golf, Pacsports Phils. Inc., Srixon, Callaway, Mizuno, Empire Golf, Footjoy, Titleist, Custom Clubmakers, Sharp and KZG.

The event also includes a slew of foreign players, led by Dutch Guido Van der Valk and Koreans Kim Chang Hoi, Park Jun Song and Mun Jae Hyung.

Meanwhile, Canlubang will host the penultimate leg on Oct. 21-24 for the ICTSI Canlubang Golf Invitational before the circuit winds up again at Wack Wack for the ICTSI Tournament Players’ Championship on Nov. 11-14.