Million-dollar Philippines Open stays

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Open will go on as scheduled.

The National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) assured yesterday that Asia’s oldest national championship stays on course on Nov. 12-15 at the Masters of Manila Southwoods, even after the withdrawal of BingoPlus as main presenter.

The Philippine Sports Commission and the Asian Tour have stepped in as chief backers, with NGAP president Al Panlilio guaranteeing the 72-hole championship will remain at least a $1 million event.

“We are very grateful to Chair Pato (Gregorio of the PSC), Mr. Cho (Minn Thant of the Asian Tour), and of course, to Manila Southwoods, that we will still be able to hold the event as scheduled,” said Panlilio.

“There are several other entities from different businesses which are very willing to make this happen,” he added. “We are just ironing out the details of everything before we make the announcement.”

Frenchman Julien Sale will be back to defend the crown he won in dramatic fashion as a rookie last year. He fired a closing five-under-par 65 for a 269 total, edging Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana and Japan’s Tomoyo Ikemura by one.