Miguel Tabuena and Charles Hong confirmed their participation in the rich ICTSI Pilipinas Invitational beginning tomorrow at Manila Southwoods’ Legends course in Carmona, Cavite, each gunning for a second victory in the third of four P3.5-million events lined up on the ICTSI Philippine Golf Tour.

Miguel Tabuena

Tabuena ruled the ICTSI Manila Masters at Eastridge last June, besting a star-studded cast to win by three over Elmer Salvador despite a closing 74, while Hong closed out with a 65 and a 68 to edge young Micah Shin by one at the ICTSI Sherwood Hills Classic last April.

With another whopping P650,000 up for grabs in the 72-hole championship, Tabuena and Hong hope to re-display the form they showed in winning two of the four richest tournaments on the local circuit and get another shot at the juicy pot and at the same time boost their respective bids in the Order of Merit.

“I’m playing well and feeling confident with my game,” said Tabuena, in third behind Tony Lascuna and Salvador in the current OOM race. He tied for eighth with Jhonnel Ababa in last week’s Aboitiz Invitational at Riviera’s Couples layout.

Hong, fourth in the OOM standings, didn’t see action last week as he resumed his campaign in the Japan Tour qualifier where he shot an even par in the final day to finish two-under for the tournament.

Orchard edged Valley in a pair of thrilling, down-to-the-wire duels to capture two crowns while Alabang stamped its class in Class C in the fifth leg of the 2014 Champion Infinity WGAP Circuit at Orchard Golf and Country Club’s Palmer Course in Dasmariñas, Cavite recently.

Marissa Romano and Amy Dy fired 41 points apiece while Jean Magsino and Abby Lapid added 38 and 33, respectively, as Orchard pooled 153 points under the Modified Stabledford scoring system to nip Valley, which had a 152, and nail the Class A title in the event sponsored by Champion Infinity.

Sandra Nocum also shot a 41 for Valley, which drew 40 points from Joy Sevilla and 37 and 34 from Cielo Fregil and Sylvia Carpio, respectively. Aguinaldo, led by Lizbeth Alcantara’s 41 markers, placed third with a 149, nipping Tagaytay Highlands (148) by one and Alabang (147) and Southwoods (147) by two in what proved to be the most tightly-fought battle thus far in the circuit organized by Women’s Golf Association of the Phils. (WGAP).

Forest Hills made a 144, Canlubang turned in a 142, Sta. Elena had a 141 while Villamor struggled with a 111.

Orchard, thanks to Valley’s Mathilda Sun’s honesty, took the Class B honors with a 158, repulsing the Antipolo-based squad by two as Irene Tatsumi sizzled with 46 points and Maisa Catindig, Leanne Zuniega and Melissa Jimenez shot 39, 37 and 36, respectively.

Valley also recorded a 158 and would’ve foiled Orchard in the countback with a lower handicap. But Sun’s score in one of the holes was incorrectly encoded as birdie 3 instead of a bogey 5, thus deducting two points from her and the team’s overall score and making it a 156.

“The error was in encoding and Mathilda’s honesty was admirable,” said WGAP president Marissa Romano.

Princess Superal shot a three-over-par 73 Tuesday but still made it comfortably into the match play competition of the US Women’s Amateur Championship at the Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, New York Tuesday.

PRINCESS SUPERAL

Three straight bogeys from No. 12 prevented Superal from getting a higher seeding but the Filipina bet who just won the US Girls’ Junior championship remains confident heading to the knockout match on Wednesday.

Tied for eighth with a 70 after the first round, Superal also had a double bogey on No. 7 then hit a birdie on No. 11. But the top ICTSI-backed bet tumbled down again with those bogeys. She wound up with a two-day total of 143, three over par and shared 15th place with Sarah Burnham (69), Jiyoon Jang (71), Ember Schuldt (71), Portland Rosen (72) and Ashley Burke (72).

Bethany Wu, whom Superal toppled in the quarters en route to her Girls’victory in Portland last week, strung up a 69 and 68 to take low medal honors in the qualifiers that drew 153 entries with the top 64 advancing to the knockout stage.

At No. 15, Superal drew No. 50 Raegan Bremer in one of the matches in the lower bracket of the 64-player draw. A win would pit her against the winner in the Jang-Emma Talley duel.

While she expressed confidence of her chances this week, the 17-year-old Superal said it will boil down to putting in the knockout stages.

“I’m confident but at the same time I should really be focused on what I should do,” said Superal, who edged Mexican Marijosse Navarro on the 37th to become the first Filipino-born player to win the US Girls’ Junior crown.

MANILA BULLETIN 

Filipino duo Yuri Allado and Abe Rosal settled for second place after losing to the South African tandem of Jeanne Koegelenberg and Mark Roux in the final of the 8th Jack Nicklaus International Invitational (JNII) held recently at New Albany Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.

American legend Jack Nicklaus (center) poses with PH team members Yuri Allado and Abe Rosal.

Allado and Rosal’s early bogey on the par-3 second hole proved to be crucial in their campaign, as the South Africans birdied it with a tee shot to eight feet. Koegelenberg and Roux finished with a gross score of 54 over 15 holes.

Korea’s Doo Young Choi and Janghyun Yang settled for third place – the best finish for a Korean team – after beating Andyjaya Melawi and David Sumedap of Indonesia.

Team Philippines, however, took spotlight when Rosal shot the tournament’s first hole-in-one on 151 yards on No. 5. He went home with a Jack Nicklaus memorabilia.

“The experience was definitely one off the bucket list. The camaraderie developed with the other participants was unexpected, and the friendly atmosphere made it easy to cultivate new friendships” said Allado.

Teams from six countries competed in the tournament, which has raised over $2 million for charities around the globe since its inception in 2006.

The Aboitiz Invitational makes its return to the Asian Development Tour (ADT) calendar next month with an increased prize fund of $100,000 and field toughened up by the country’s top guns and a slew of top foreign players.

The fourth edition of the event will be staged at the Riviera Golf and Country Club’s Couples Course for the first time from Aug. 27-30 with the prize pot seeing a significant 53.8 percent jump from $65,000, which was offered during the first three editions held at the Cebu Country Club since 2011.

The Aboitiz Invitational, won by Jay Bayron in the inaugurals and Elmer Salvador the last two years, will also mark the ADT’s third stop in the Philippines this season and raises the schedule to a record total of 20 tournaments.

The ADT, which is the gateway to the premier Asian Tour, was launched in 2010 with five tournaments before growing to eight in 2011, 13 in 2012 and 16 in 2013.

Salvador, who claimed his third ADT victory at the ICTSI Riviera Classic at Langer course last May, played his way into the record books by becoming the first player to successfully defend a title on the ADT at the Aboitiz Invitational last year.

The tournament will feature leading Filipino stars such as Angelo Que, a three-time Asian Tour winner, Tony Lascuna, young gun Miguel Tabuena, 2012 ADT Order of Merit winner Bayron and back-to-back defending champion Salvador, who will compete against an international field from the ADT.

Erramon Aboitiz, president and chief executive officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., expressed his delight with the extended partnership with the burgeoning ADT.

“The first three editions of the Aboitiz Invitational have been very successful and we are delighted to increase the prize fund to US$100,000 this year. We are proud to support our homegrown golfing talents as they pursue greater heights on the elite Asian Tour,” said Aboitiz.

“Aboitiz has always championed an active and sustainable lifestyle through sports. We hold annual sports festivals where our different business units will compete in various sports actively. We also support many external sports events such as the very first Aboitiz TRI2014. It is our honor to be involved with the growth of professional golf in the region and we look forward to a very successful tournament in August,” added Aboitiz.