TCC Invitational ushers in new PGT season

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Golf Tour heralds a new decade with its flagship championship – The Country Club Invitational – unfolding March 4, featuring an elite 32-player field all geared up for four days of battle of power, stamina and mental toughness at the wind-swept TCC course in Laguna.

Two-time champion Tony Lascuña and 2013 titlist Frankie Miñoza head the select cast in the country’s richest championship (P5 million) outside of the Philippine Open, upbeat but wary of their respective chances against the tour’s revered names and rising stars making up the Top 30 in the 2019 PGT Order of Merit ranking.

They, however, will have to deal with the Tom Weiskoph-designed layout, feared for its sheer length and unsettling hazards and roughs not to mention its undulating surface and the wind that comes into play in most holes.

Kim Joo Hyung had a 290 to edge Fil-German Keanu Jahns by one in a thrilling finish last year, keeping the crown at the hands of the Korean-Americans for the second straight year after Micah Shin humbled Miguel Tabuena in 2018.