Guido opens with 67 to lead at TCC by a shot
STA. ROSA, Laguna—Save for a slight drizzle early Tuesday morning, there was hardly anything that made the first round of the rich The Country Club (TCC) Invitational as demanding as it was in the past years.
“It was very nice today, because there wasn’t much wind,” The Netherlands’ Guido van der Valk, after shooting a five-under-par 67 to take a one-shot lead on Tuesday, said. “It was raining, but hardly any breeze, which is very rare on this course. If the wind picks up, the scores will definitely go up and anything can happen.”
Five players cracked par, with Clyde Mondilla, missing taking a share of the lead after a missed-green bogey on the 18th, with Carl Corpus shooting a 69 to be two back and South Korea’s Jung Jae-hyun and the United States’ Micah Shin shooting 71s.
“There was practically no winds, so birdie chances were there on almost every hole,” Mondilla, one of four former PH Open champions in the field, said in Filipino.
P6.5-M event
Miguel Tabuena, the most fancied player in the 30-strong field, had two birdies and two bogeys in returning a 72 and staying well within striking distance, with Angelo Que, seeking to become the first player to win this event four times, shooting a 73 to be just six shots off the pace going into the last 54 holes of the no-cut, P6.5 million event.
“I’m definitely more confident with everything I do now,” said Corpus. “I saw last year that my game could work, so I focused on my positives and worked even harder during the break.”
Sean Ramos, another rising star on the local scene, was tied with Tabuena, with Aidric Chan and the long-hitting Keanu Jahns keeping Que company to round out the top 10.
The veteran Antonio Lascuña, who has a victory over Tabuena at the windswept layout, had just one birdie in a 77 and would need a really low second round to matter in the money rounds.
Fidel Concepcion, who broke through as a pro at Apo last year, is tied with the 54-year-old Lascuña, who won the last of his multiple Order of Merit titles in 2024.
