Justin delos Santos is taking time away from the lucrative Japan Golf Tour to fulfill a dream.
‘Definitely an honor to represent the Philippines,’ Delos Santos told the Inquirer as he flies the three stars and the sun to Nagoya as part of the national golf team that will be shooting to win gold for the first time in the last three editions of the Asian Games.
‘I’ve always said I’ve wanted to compete for the Philippines to try and give the country the representation it deserves,’ the 31-year-old said as he forms a trio made up of Miguel Tabuena and Carl Corpus that will try to win the country its first men’s golf title in 40 years.
‘It’s my reasoning for playing [the Asiad] over the Japan Tour event the same week,’ he said after giving up his slot on the ¥150-million (around P60 million) Drugstore Cosmos Cup of the JGTO, his home tour for the last seven years.
Ramon Brobio, now the national coach who is with the men’s and women’s teams in Nagoya, won the 1986 gold medal in Seoul, South Korea, and the country has not won a title in these Games since Yuka Saso, then still playing for the Philippines, led a women’s sweep in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Even with the men’s field stacked with a lot of world-class talent-with multitime PGA Tour champion Tom Kim flying in straight from the Presidents Cup in Illinois to lead the fight for the Koreans-Delos Santos has utmost confidence in the team he’s on.
‘I want gold. It’s as simple as that,’ Delos Santos declares as action gets going at Kasugai Country Club on Wednesday.
‘I’m confident in myself as well as our team to perform.’
Of most of the foreigners seeing action in the Asiad, Delos Santos is one of the few who knows a little something about the game in Japanese courses. It’s an advantage he hopes to take full advantage of and share with Tabuena and Corpus.
‘It’s definitely nice to have the event be in a [country] I’m already comfortable in, as this is obviously a new experience for me,’ he explained. ‘So that familiarity will be big for me.’
Kim is the highest-ranked player in the men’s field, while China’s Ruoning Yin, the former world No. 1 and major championship winner, headlines the 45-strong women’s field which counts Bianca Pagdanganan, Pauline del Rosario and amateur Rianne Malixi, an All-American at Duke University.
The home team is also stacked with Keita Nakajima, who played on the PGA Tour full time this season after finishing inside the top 10 of the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) last year, and Kazuki Higa, the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit champion last year.