98th Philippine Open begins: Ailing Tabuena welcomes ‘rain delay’

TARLAC, Philippines – Battling slight fever the last couple of days, Filipino ace Miguel Tabuena saw the rain delays in the shortened 98th Philippine Open presented by ICTSI as a blessing in disguise as he got extra time to recover in time for today’s opening round.

The 21-year-old Tabuena already felt the weariness from a tough schedule the past five weeks and so when organizers called off the Wednesday’s pro-am and Thursday’s first round due to incessant rains brought about by tropical depression Nona, he felt a sense of relief.

“It gave me time to rest a bit,” said Tabuena the local tour’s reigning Order of Merit king who is expected to lead the local charge in the weather-reduced 54-hole event at the Luisita Golf and Country Club here along with 2011 Asian Tour OOM winner Juvic Pagunsan, Tony Lascuña, and Cassius Casas with former champ Angelo Que sitting this one out due to a sore shoulder.

Giving Tabuena added confidence was his earlier triumph in the Philippine Golf Tour’s Central Azucarera de Tarlac Open at the par-72 layout where he shot a 22-under total under preferred lies, which will also be applied this week.

“Since it’s preferred lies and the greens are relatively soft due to recent rains, I think the leader will be around 65-66,” said Luisita’s Jeric Hechanova.

Tabuena said he hoped he will be “close to 100 percent by Friday (today). Good thing is, I know the course, I won here a few months ago, I’m familiar with it so I didn’t have to practice for a day,” he said.

“If it were not the Philippine Open, I would have considered backing out to rest but I want to win this tournament and I think there’s a good chance this year,” he added.

Tabuena and his compatriots are up for a tough challenge in the $300,000 Asian Tour event sponsored by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. against an elite cast headed by 2014 champion Marcus Both of Australia, two-time Asian Tour No. 1 Thaworn Wiratchat of Thailand, former titlist Mardan Mamat of Singapore, and rising star Jeunghun Wang of Korea.

“I feel very comfortable in the Philippines because I grew up playing here,” said Wang, who spent six years in the country as a junior golfer.

The skies cleared after days of heavy downpour yesterday, making it a go for the 2015 edition of Asia’s oldest National Open also sponsored by the MVP Sports Foundation, Smart, PLDT, Metro Pacific, Amon Trading, Central Azucarera de Tarlac and Ayala Land, Inc. with San Miguel Corp., Suntrust Properties and Sta. Lucia as hole sponsors.

Pagunsan joins Wiratchant and Both in a star-studded group teeing off at Hole No. 10 at 7 a.m. while Tabuena tees off at No. 1 with groupmates Hung Chien-yao of Chinese Taipei and Danthai Boonma of Thailand later at 11:30 a.m.

Lascuña has Mamat and Paul Peterson of the US for company in a batch that starts 11:40 a.m. and Casas gets going at 12 noon with Jonathan Moore of the US, and Thammanoon Sriroj of Thailand.