Tournament Information

• Tournament: Smart Infinity Philippine Open
• Date: January 23-26, 2025
• Venue: The Manila Southwoods G&CC (Masters Course)
• Par/Yards: Par 70 / 7,138 Yards
• Purse: US$500,000
• Asian Tour leg: First event of the 2025 season
• Total number of players: 144
• Format: 72-hole stroke play with a cut made after two rounds to the leading 65 pros plus ties
• Social Media Hashtags: #TimeToRise #SmartInfinity #PhilippineOpen

Field breakdown

• Order of Merit winners: Sihwan Kim (2022), Jazz Janewattananond (2019)
• Nationalities: 28
• Top contenders: Suteepat Prateeptienchai (THA), Miguel Tabuena (PHI), Sadom Kaewkanjana (THA), Steve Lewton (ENG), Travis Smyth (AUS), Scott Vincent (ZIM)
• Highest ranked player on OWGR: Suteepat Prateeptienchai #225
• Highest ranked player on 2024 Asian Tour Order of Merit: Suteepat Prateeptienchai (THA) #5
• Defending champion: Clyde Mondilla (PHI) 2019
• No. of amateurs: 7
• No. of Philippine players in the field: 39

Tournament Notes

• The National Open of the Philippines is making a return to the Asian Tour after a 10-year absence. It was last on the schedule in 2015, when Miguel Tabuena won for the first time on the Asian Tour. It has been played three times since then on the local tour.
• The tournament is the season-opening event on the Asian Tour.
• Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai is a three-time winner on the Asian Tour after winning twice in 2024, with both wins coming in Chinese Taipei at the Yeangder TPC and the Taiwan Glass Taifong Open. His maiden win also came at the latter event in 2023. Finishing fifth on the Order of Merit last year, he is also the highest ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) in the field this week at number 225.
• Filippino Miguel Tabuena is playing on home turf this week and has already won the Philippine Open twice, once when it was part of the Asian Tour in 2015 and again in 2018 when it was held on the local circuit. Tabuena had a strong season in 2024 finishing seventh on the Order of Merit. If he is successful this week he will join two legends of the game in the region who have achieved the hat-trick: Filipino Ben Arda and Chinese-Taipei’s Lu Liang-huang, serial winners in the 1960s and 70s.
• Travis Smyth of Australia is the third highest ranked player from the 2024 Order of Merit in the field this week finishing eighth last year. The winner of the 2022 Yeangder TPC posted four top 10s on the Asian Tour last year and is ranked 275^th on the OWGR.
• Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana had a solid season in 2024 missing only one cut in 20 outings on the Asian Tour, and with three top 10s he finished 10^th on the Order of Merit. He is a two-time Asian Tour winner.
• Englishman Steve Lewton picked up his second Asian Tour victory in the second half of 2024 when he won the Mandiri Indonesia Open in a play-off, finishing 16^th on the Order of Merit overall. Lewton won this event in 2017 when it was part of the local tour.
• Zues Sara, winner of last year’s Philippine Open Amateur and Rianne Malixi, who hit global headlines last season after becoming only the second golfer to win both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in the same year, are two Filipino stars in the making also playing.
• The Philippine Open is one of the longest-running tournaments in the world. Inaugurated in 1913 it is Asia’s oldest golf tournament.
• The winningest player of the tournament is Filipino Larry Montes who won the tournament an incredible 12 times between 1929-1954.
• This year will mark the fifth time that Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club has hosted the event. It also staged it in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1999.