Jahns, solid mentally, looms as TCC dark horse
Keanu Jahns will be entering the new PGT season sharpening the very tool that gave him much success last year, his mental game.
“I’m not really trying to do anything different,” Jahns said ahead of the rich The Country Club Invitational that gets going on Tuesday in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. “Staying present and being committed on the course has been working for me, so I’ll be sticking to that.”
Jahns will be shooting to win the season-opening event for the first time, and he will have his hands full against a lean field bannered by Miguel Tabuena, the history-seeking Angelo Que and the rest of last year’s finest in the circuit.
And Jahns has recent history on his side at the windswept layout, triumphing over Dutchman Guido van der Valk in the Match Play championship November last year.
Before that win, Jahns ruled two stroke play legs—at Caliraya Springs and in Bacolod—that had him contending neck-and-neck with Que for the Order of Merit title.
And Jahns sees the coming season as a chance to top the season race, with the P6.5 million championship the perfect venue to launch that bid.
“My goal this year is to have a good finish in the OOM Top 3,” he said. “But with the way I’ve been playing, winning the OOM would be nice.
“With the way I played last year, I’m very confident in my game,” he said. “But to play my best golf, I can’t be too oriented on results. If I take it one shot at a time and maintain a solid mindset, the results will follow.”
That philosophy will be put to the test in what promises to be a mental grind at TCC, where several other past champs like Van der Valk, Tony Lascuña, Frankie Miñoza and Micah Shin are entered.
Que, meanwhile, will be taking another shot at a record fourth triumph, and approaching 47 years old, has all the confidence coming off one of the best seasons of his career.
“Am looking to unlock another achievement,” Que had told the Inquirer of that fourth title, which will enable him to break out of a tie with the absent Juvic Pagunsan. “Winning the OOM (last year) was very special for me, because it validates all the hard work that I have been putting in.”
