Philippine golfers seek redemption in Kasugai

NAGOYA – From a two-gold blast in Jakarta to a shutout in Hangzhou, Philippine golf gets its shot at redemption starting today.

Action tees off at the East Course of Kasugai Country Club here, where both the men’s and women’s squads open their campaigns against the fancied Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Thais in one of Japan’s most respected classic courses.

It’s a mission 40 years in the making for the men. The Philippines last won men’s individual gold in 1986 through Ramon Brobio – now on the bag as team coach.

For the women, it’s a bid to reclaim what Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Kaye Go built in 2018.

The stage: 72 holes for individual and team golds in one. Three players per country, best two scores each round count. The venue is Kasugai East – 6,883 yards of rolling ridgeline-to-valley parkland on the northeast edge of Nagoya, listed as par-72 but set to par-70 for the Games.

It is not long by modern standards but it is demanding. The description from players who saw it after the rebuild says it all: “precision, course management and mental resilience.”

Composing the men’s team are LIV veteran Miguel Tabuena, Japan Tour regular Justin delos Santos, and Carl Corpus – in for PGA Tour mainstay Rico Hoey, who withdrew a month ago to chase his Tour card in the Fall Series. But Corpus is no stop-gap; he broke through on the Asian Development Tour in 2025 before winning his first Philippine Golf Tour title.

To be sent to battle in women’s play are LPGA veteran Bianca Pagdanganan – fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, the only link left to the 2018 double-gold team – Epson Tour regular Pauline Del Rosario, and 19-year-old phenom Rianne Malixi, former US Women’s Amateur and US Girls’ Junior champion.

The field is said to be the strongest in years.

Consider South Korea’s Tom Kim (Kim Joo-hyung) – a star who grew up in Manila, going 4-1 at the Presidents Cup in Chicago last weekend then flying straight to Nagoya – and Kim Sung-hyun, both playing for exemption from Korea’s mandatory military service.

Japan counters with Keita Nakajima (T3 at Genesis Scottish Open this year) and Kazuki Higa (last year’s Asian Tour money leader) with home course, home crowd, home greens.

Thailand brings Sadom Kaewkanjana, winner of last year’s Korea Open, leading a deep Thai squad that has targeted golf as one of its 14 gold-medal bets. Thailand is defending team champion. Hong Kong’s defending individual champion Taichi Kho is back.

Women’s is as star-studded: China’s Yin Ruoning and Liu Yan (LPGA winners), Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol – who swept individual and team gold in Hangzhou – plus Patcharajutar Kongkraphan, Korea’s Yang Yun-seo, this year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur champion, leading three high-school amateurs out to make up for team silver in Hangzhou, Japan’s Aira Nagasawa, Mamika Shinchi and Ai Goto, Taiwan’s former World No. 1 Yani Tseng, and India’s Olympians Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar.

Traditional powers, all in.