MIGUEL Tabuena scored big for Lexus last weekend as he won America’s Idaho Open Golf championship in runaway fashion.
Hep! Hep! Hooray! for both Alfred V. Ty and Raymond T. Rodriguez for Tabuena’s rare feat carved out at Quail Hollow Golf Club, Boise, Idaho, USA.
Alfred aka AVT is the dapper chairman of Lexus Philippines and Raymond aka RTR the president of Lexus Manila.
Both AVT and RTR combined to make Tabuena a Lexus endorser, succeeding Japan campaigner Juvic Pagunsan upon the bidding of former Lexus president Danny “Sir John” Isla. Pagunsan himself hit pay dirt on the global stage, winning recently Japan’s Mizuno Open that earned him a slot both in the July British Open and the just-ended Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Among the perks if you are a Lexus endorser is, you are chauffeur-driven while in Japan. Upon disembarkation in Manila, you are fetched at the airport and a Lexus model will be at your disposal in the Philippines. A lucrative cash incentive caps the contract.
In winning the Idaho Open, Tabuena, who turns 27 on October 13, began with a 5-under par and then grabbed the lead after firing a 7-under par in Round 2 punctuated by 9 blazing birdies.
Up by 5 strokes going to the final round of the 54-hole competition, Tabuena, a two-time Philippine Open champion and a veteran of the 2016 Rio Olympics, coasted along in the last 18 holes to cruise to a 4-shot victory.
The win was doubly important as it made Tabuena the second Asian Lexus endorser to hit it big on the world stage this year after Hideki Matsuyama of Japan won the Masters in April.
Matsuyama, 29, first played as a 19-year-old phenom in the Masters in 2011 after an earthquake struck his home in Sendai, Japan.
Tabuena might not have pocketed as much as what Matsuyama had amassed ($2,070,000 from the total pot of $11,500,000) in winning the Masters, but the victory proved once more that Filipino athletes making waves internationally has become almost commonplace.
Recall that weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz captured the first OIympic gold for the country in Tokyo 2020, with Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam garnering boxing silvers and Eumir Marcial a boxing bronze.
Aside from incentives of millions of pesos given to them by the government and businessmen like BMW PHL owner Ramon S. Ang, Diaz, Petecio and Paalam also were each awarded Foton variants by Foton chieftain Rommel Sytin.
And who would forget Yuka Saso’s stunning victory in the US Open last June 7, making her the first Filipino to win a major golf trophy?
And so, with Tabuena’s latest achievement in Idaho, America’s potato capital, the Filipino fighting spirit continues to roar and soar even amid the still-raging pandemic.
Lexus couldn’t be prouder.
PEE STOP While at it, the Lexus ES, first unleashed in 1989, will launch its 7th generation this month. Jade B. Sison says visit lexus.com.ph, Facebook and Instagram @lexusmanila, or https://fal.cn/3eSWW for more details…Happy birthday to Hi-Lux driving Bob Corrales of Ayala Alabang. Cheers!