Golfer who helped ‘Yolanda’ efforts back for PH Open
Liang Wenchong returns to the Philippines, more than 11 years to the date when his act of charity endeared him to—and helped—a lot of unfortunate Filipinos he never even knew.
Regarded as China’s best golf product after shooting to world No. 57 at one time in his career, Wenchong sees action in the revival of the $500,000 Smart Infinity Philippine Open starting on Thursday as he tries to rekindle winning form while at the same time touch base again with the country he helped a great deal.
“He’s not really playing that much anymore, but he wants to come over and play,” Serene Loh, the Asian Tour’s media relations officer, told the Inquirer on Monday. “He has so many memories here.”
Those memories are both good and bad, with the best one being when he won the inaugural Resorts World Manila Masters at Southwoods, where the Open will also be played.
The poignant memories he has include images and news of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan), the category 5 storm that devastated the Philippines in 2013 and left a trail of destruction in 44 provinces and more than 6,300 dead in the Visayas alone.
Most decorated
After beating Thailand’s Prom Meesawat in the first playoff hole to rule the first Manila Masters edition, Wenchong, now 46 years old, donated half of his $135,000 prize money ($67,500, around P2.950 million that time) to relief efforts, saying later on that he could not believe the things he saw on television.
“I was really affected by what I saw of the damage and victims suffering from the aftermath of the typhoon,” Wenchong said that time.
Wenchong, expected to plane in on Tuesday, will come into the 72-hole event this week as probably the most decorated, owning 21 international wins as a pro while playing in all of golf’s four majors at least once.
He is now reported to be a successful businessman in China, treating Filipino golfers and their caddies whenever he gets the chance.
Meanwhile, the Open is providing joy to some of Southwoods’ regular caddies, more than 100 of whom have been accredited to carry bags in the tournament.
That’s because the minimum caddy fee for the week is P2,500 per round. And if one’s player makes the cut to play four days, and uses both practice rounds prior to the tournament, that would be a cool P15,000 paycheck for a week’s work.
Being able to grab the bag of the eventual winner certainly would be icing on the cake.
