Angelo raring to resume quest for glory
MANILA, Philippines – Injury-free and fully rested, Angelo Que is eager and ready to get into the swing of things again, his appetite for winning hardly waning amid the long break caused by the global health crisis restrictions.
After all, at 41, options and chances could be shrinking for one of the region’s long hitters given the steady rise of a slew of young guns in the region’s various circuits. A three-time winner, he last won on the Asian Tour in 2010, posted his first and only victory in Japan PGA Tour two years ago and annexed his last triumph in Philippine Golf Tour Asia at home in Manila Southwoods last year.
While he expected to dominate in local turf, his Japan exploit came as a big surprise.
“At my age, winning in Japan is surreal,” Que told asiantour.com. “It’s hard to keep up with the young ones right now. You look at the age of the guys dominating on the Tour now, they are in the mid-20s to early 30s, so to keep up with those guys, it’s a big deal for me.”
While the long pandemic break kept top players like him off the fairways practically the last five months, it also gave him the time to heal an elbow injury that had hampered his campaign early in the season.
“I have actually enjoyed the rest because before the lockdown and before the end of last year, I had tennis elbow,” he said, referring to injury on the forearm muscles and tendons, which generally become damaged from overuse.
“It (injury) sort of affected the way I played,” he added. “So the rest has been a big help for my elbow.”
But therein lies the rub – now that he’s injury-free, there are no tournaments to play on.
“It is also frustrating because now that I don’t feel pain and I want to play, there are no tournaments,” rued Que, who last competed in the Malaysia Open last March where he tied for 31st despite elbow concerns.
But with the local tour eyeing an October “bubble” and the Asian Tour and Japan PGA looking to reopen in September and October, respectively, Que can’t help but get thrilled over the chance to slug it out again with the best and the brightest in the region.
That means back into training starting this week, shake off the rust and reach competitive level in time for the tour’s resumption.
“After the Malaysia Open, the next round that I played was in June. But I am sort of used to not playing that much, especially when I’m home for a month. But three months is a bit long. I felt a bit stiff, everything was a bit rusty when I started playing again.”
But as a player of his caliber, it won’t be long before the man dubbed as the “human highlighter” could be lighting up the fairways with his multi-colored golf attire and the leaderboard with red numbers again.
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