Nothing certain in women’s match play tilt
In a season where the men’s title chase seems to be centered on clear-cut favorites, the women’s side of the ICTSI The Country Club Match Play Championship promises many more surprises.
The season-ender tees off on Tuesday at the windswept, hazard-laced fairways of The Country Club in Laguna, gathering the top 16 finishers from the yearlong Ladies Philippine Golf Tour. With no runaway favorite and plenty of proven winners in the mix, the knockout format has heightened the unpredictability of the competition.
Princess Superal, the Caliraya Springs leg champion and one of the year’s dominant players, won’t be around. She’s pursuing a Japan Q-School bid, opening the door for 17th-ranked Kayla Nocum to step in—and step directly into a first-round duel with Order of Merit winner Sarah Ababa.
Ababa collected two tour victories this season, skipped the Taiwan swing to sharpen her short game, and enters the match play bracket with a lot of confidence.
But defending champion Florence Bisera won’t make things easy. After edging Mikha Fortuna last year, Bisera added a win in the Negros Occidental leg and a breakthrough in Thailand. She stumbled early in the Mindanao series, but rebounded with a near-win at South Pacific, falling just one shot shy of Ababa.
Also looming are long-hitting contenders Chanelle Avaricio, Mafy Singson and Tiffany Lee—players who could overpower TCC’s lengthy layout. Others like Harmie Constantino, Chihiro Ikeda and Gretchen Villacencio will rely more on their experience.
First-day pairings feature intriguing matchups: Bisera vs Velinda Castil, Avaricio vs Kim Seo-yun, Singson vs Apple Fudolin, Lee vs Kristine Fleetwood, Constantino vs Pamela Mariano, Ikeda vs Daniella Uy and Martina Miñoza vs Villacencio.
The TCC course, with its swirling winds and tough layout, will demand steady and stute shotmaking. That, coupled with match play’s all-or-nothing format, will make things tough to call until the participants tee off.
