CARMONA, Cavite—Chinese ace Liang Wenchong is back in the country, not only to play in a land where he says he “is lucky,” but also to reboot a world-class career put on hold for a few years because of business concerns.
“This is my restart,” Liang said during the Pro-Am of the $500,000 Smart Infinity Philippine Open on Wednesday where he spearheaded a team made up of Star sports editor Nelson Beltran and spin.ph’s Dodo Catacutan and Ding Marcelo.
The Open also will be having its reboot like Leong, as it was shelved the last five years starting when the COVID-19 pandemic ground all of sports in the world to a halt in 2020.
“I will play full time again starting this year,” said Liang, who won the inaugural Manila Masters, also at Manila Southwoods’s Masters course, in 2013. “This will be good for (my career restart), because I am lucky in this country.”
Leong’s name stands out from among a hundred or so foreign bets seeing action in the kickoff leg of the Asian Tour season on Thursday, as his generous act of donating half of his winnings in that 2013 triumph is simply worth talking about.
And now his game will be put on focus as he starts his trek back to the form that once ranked him 57th in the world.
“He hasn’t played much but we all know he is very good,” Jazz Janewattananond, the Thai who won the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit race a few years back, said of Leong.
Of course, the Philippine charge led by Miguel Tabuena, Justin Quiban and Japan Tour regular Justin delos Santos will be worth watching at the start of 72-hole play.
Tabuena has left no stones unturned in trying to get his season off on a smashing note, having a new man on the bag and sharpening his game over the world-class layout everyday without fail for the two weeks or so.
“That’s certainly a motivation,” Tabuena said when asked of his chase for a third Open title. “It would definitely be nice to have my name written on that trophy more than two times.”
The field again got a sample of how tough the Masters can play being a par-70, after two par-5s were converted into long par-4 which require players to his approaches with long irons or even hybrids.
Delos Santos arrived from the United States last Saturday and has shaken off jetlag somewhat. He skipped the Pro-Am but said that winning this event “would be big, because this carries a special sense of pride.”
