Lucrative Mindanao swing ends PGT season
The PGT season ends with a three-leg Mindanao swing starting the second week of next month, and after the chase for a combined P10.5 million staked in events at Del Monte in Bukidnon, Apo Golf and South Pacific in Davao, jockeying for slots for two major events will be a very interesting sidelight.
This is easily the richest three-leg stretch in the 16-year history of the PGT, with P3.5 million up for grabs starting with the Del Monte Championship in Bukidnon, on Oct. 14, where the race to make it to the Match Play Championship in December also begins.
Ranking points for TCC
The Apo Golf Classic and South Pacific Classic will also carry P3.5 million in purses each, and they can be the most pivotal in the chase for final season-ranking points, where a top 30 finish overall will mean a slot in the rich The Country Club Invitational in February.
Only the top 30 players get invites the following year for the TCC, which gives out a cool P1.5 million to the champion.
A handsome P6 million has been the TCC pot for the past several years, as the event kicks off each PGT season and practically gives each of the 30 players in the field start-up funds for the year’s campaign, with the event having no cut.
Clyde Mondilla, the former PH Open winner, won the last time the PGT played at Del Monte 2023, nipping Reymon Jaraula by a shot, before Justin Quiban reigned at South Pacific after beating Marvin Dumandan in four holes of sudden death.
Mondilla plays out of Del Monte, and his local knowledge of the tree-lined layout will obviously again help him during the kick-off leg of the Mindanao swing.
In last year’s Apo Classic, Jonel Ababa delighted the home crowd with a sudden-death win over Guido van der Valk.
Ababa is one of the proud sons of Apo, which has produced some of the finest shotmakers the country has ever seen.
Antonio Lascuna, who is also campaigning in the senior circuit, will be one of the favorites there.
