Reigning national champion Negrense Anya Tanpinco will be among the top brass in ladies’ golf vying for the crown in this year’s ICTSI-Philippine Ladies Open Amateur Golf Championships when the event tees off today at the Manila Southwoods Legends Course in Carmona, Cavite.

Tanpinco will have her hands full competing against local and foreign talents, among them, defending champion Chihiro Ikeda, and three-time Junior World titlist Dottie Ardina.

The wide-open race will boil down to whoever makes the right club selection in tackling the wind, national teach coach Bong Lopez said.

Lopez's wards in the ICTSI golf stable are expected to lead the chase for the championship in the event organized by the Women's Golf Association of the Philippines.

Indonesia’s Ines Putri Chandra and Korean Lee Jeong-Hwa will be two of the local bets’ toughest challengers in the 54-hole championship owing to their top form and solid games, according to Lopez.

Chandra, a national team mainstay back home, is one of four Indonesians seeing action in the event, sponsored by ICTSI, the Philippine Sports Commission, San Miguel Corp. and Nike, while Lee is coming off a runner-up finish in last year’s DHL Open won by Ikeda in a playoff.

But focus will be on Ikeda, Tanpinco and Ardina, who are expected to pour it all out for the victory, momentum and confidence they would need to boost their respective campaigns here and abroad this year.

Ikeda, who beat Lydia Ivana Jaya of Indonesia by three shots in a stirring come-from-behind victory last year, hopes to come out with a strong start this time but the 17-year-old Fil-Japanese is expected to encounter stiff challenge early on from her ICTSI teammates.

They include Ardina, who is raring to annex the crown as she resumes her studies in the US next week as an ICTSI golf scholar, and Tanpinco, out to add the title to her growing list of victories,

Others in the fold are Sarah Ababa and Louise Manalo, Southwoods' Sunshine Baraquiel, Cangolf's Lucy Landicho, Riviera's Maria Andrea Legaspi, Eva Minoza and Kristine Leonin of Del Monte and Crystal and Princess Superal of Orchard.

Joining Chandra and Lee in the foreign roster are Malaysian Diane Luke, Lilibeth De Rossi and Jenny Park of the US, Koreans JI Hyun Lee, Ji Yeon Li, So Won Lee and Jeong Hwa Lee and Indonesians Dita Widyanatri and Victory Chandra Tjiong,

Other clubs represented are Sta. Elena, Eagle Ridge, Soutwoods, Valley Golf, Orchard, Riviera, Tagaytay Highlands, Alta Vista, Forest Hills, Pueblo de Oro, Cangolf, Del Monte, Navy and Southwoods.*PNA

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