Daily TribuneA brainchild of long-time golf patron Enrique Razon Jr., chairman and CEO of ICTSI, the JPGT features a series of tournaments at various championship courses in Luzon for its inaugural staging with the organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ICTSI ENRIQUE Razon Jr., the driving force behind the sport’s continuous growth.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ICTSI<br />HER highness, Princess Superal.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ICtsi<br />MAFY Singson: One of the bright lights in the amateur ranks.
There has been a steady flow of golf talents in both the junior and amateur ranks since the government tapped International Container Terminal Services, Inc. as one of its private sector partners during the country's hosting of the 23rd SEA Games in 2005.
After the biennial Games, the world's leading port operator put up its own program to boost local golf and at the same time develop and produce stars that saw the rise of Dottie Ardina, Chihiro Ikeda and Princess Superal, among others, from the ranks.
The project also included the men's but ICTSI eventually focused on women's amateur with Superal emerging as the first
Philippine-born talent to win a USGA-organized event, the US Girl's Juniors, in Arizona in 2014.
The last few years, however, saw the long-time golf patron
—which also revived the men's pro circuit in 2009 and the women's pro tour four years later — opting for quality over quantity, this time, doing away with the program and directly sponsoring a player's local and overseas campaign without expecting something in return.
Just recently, ICTSI has put emphasis on the delivery of innovative program at the junior level as it launched the Junior PGT that features four age-group categories for boys and girls, including 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-17.
A brainchild of long-time golf patron Enrique Razon Jr., chairman and CEO of ICTSI, the JPGT features a series of tournaments at various championship courses in Luzon for its inaugural staging with the organizing Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. targeting to expand it and reach out to Visayas and Mindanao where talents are waiting to be tapped.
Handled, managed and conducted by professional tour directors, rulesmen and marshals, the JPGT has no membership fees and is also staged to determine the player's skill development and help them achieve their (golfing) goals.
Over the years, ICTSI continues to expand its backing of women's pros, including US Women's Open champion and LPGA Tour mainstay Yuka Saso, and Epson Tour campaigners Bianca Pagdanganan, Pauline del Rosarlio, Abby Arevalo and Ardina.
It also supports the pursuits of LPGA of Japan and Step Up Tour regular Superal. But lately it has fixated on two amateurs at the moment Rianne Malixi and Mafy Singson.
But as Singson, fresh from nailing a second pro win on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour, toys with the idea of finally joining the big league in a year's time, Malixi, with her youth and enormous talent, is so resolved on honing her craft and reaping honors for herself and the country before moving up the ranks.
The two-time American Junior Golf Association champion ranged against the best and the brightest in the World Women's Amateurs in England recently.
The rising star has actually doubled Singson's feat in the Ladies PGT, winning all three events she had competed in last year and running away with the championship in the recent Iloilo Challenge before resuming her campaign abroad.
She has had a number of heartbreakers, though, including a last-hole mishap that cost her the Royal Junior crown in Japan, and a missed crack at the US Women's Open qualifying. But she made sure to learn something and become better and stronger from each setback as she broke into the Top 100 at No. 93 in the current world amateur rankings.
"My plan has always been to get exposures where stronger fields are available to gain experience and bring my game to maturity," Malixi said.
For many, however, her game is already ripe for the picking. With a little more fine-tuning and sharpening of her short game and putting, they believe she'd be reaching her target level sooner than expected.
That includes crashing into the elite group of amateurs in the world.
"My main target is to get into the Top 30 (in the world rankings)," she said.
She actually stood way down at No. 312 early last year but gained 100 spots last August before moving to No. 175 after finishing tied for third in the Women's Amateur Asia Pacific last year.
Though she struggled and ended up joint 13th in this year's WAAP in Singapore, Malixi continued to gain points in world-ranking events with strong finishes in various fronts, including a third-place finish in Royal Junior. She finished fourth in the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games, and 13th in the Mizuho Americas Open-AJGA Juniors in New Jersey.
With three wins and 21 other Top 10 finishes in her last 32 tournaments, Malixi has posted her best ranking at No. 93 with the 16-year-old find expecting to gain more after the World Women's Amateurs.
But while her target Top 30 looks too daunting a task given the keen competition in the ranks, Malixi has been used to facing and then bucking overwhelming odds in her young career that another test of such degree would hardly fluster her.
That's why she's staying in the ranks, for the time being, dismissing some quarters' clamor for her to go big-time. In fact, her camp has received feelers from top colleges and universities in the US although they aren't allowed to communicate with them until next month.
