Ababa eyes back-to-back at Pueblo de Oro
All eyes will be on Jhonnel Ababa and Yvon Bisera as the duo takes hot form into their respective ICTSI Pueblo de Oro Championship campaigns starting Monday in Cagayan de Oro.
Ababa will try to win for the second straight week for the first time in his career, having triumphed last week at Sta. Barbara in Iloilo after a scintillating windup to his final round for a one-shot win over Jeff Lumbo.
“I am just hitting it very well the past few weeks,” Ababa told the Inquirer in Filipino as he is installed as the player to beat over the well-manicured, bending layout. “Things just came together for me [in Iloilo]. It was God’s will that they did.”
Ababa also came from a top three finish the week before in Bacolod, as he has all the confidence to dominate again over a course that is generally wide open than the last two that the field had played.
Reymon Jaraula, the ace from Bukidnon, was the player who triumphed the last time Pueblo de Oro hosted a PGT event. He also entered this week together with Art Arbole, who won at Marapara, and a host of other former winners that counts Antonio Lascuña.
Lascuña finished second to Jaraula seven years ago, and the 55-year-old veteran is determined to win again on the regular tour before he takes his act to the Asian Senior Masters tournament in two weeks.
“I still feel that I have what it takes to win again. And I’d like to prove that to myself,” Lascuña told the Inquirer in Filipino after practice at Manila Southwoods on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bisera had issues in acquiring a visa for the Women’s China Open, taking that into a positive by entering the P1-million LPGT version of the event that also gets going Monday.
Bisera is playing so well with already two wins this season. She was also the best-placed Filipino in the Kenda Tire Open in Taiwan two weeks ago.
