The Baguio Country Club hopes to provide a different kind of challenge for the women of the tour when it hosts the P1 million ICTSI Baguio Ladies Classic beginning Wednesday (June 28) in Baguio City.

The short par-61 course is expected to test the compact field’s endurance with its arduous up-and-down layout, and mental toughness with its tight pine tree-lined fairways and elevated, tricky greens.

Emphasis will also be on accuracy and short game with the BCC, kept in tip-top shape all year-round, tipped to punish a slight mishit or miscue or even an aggressive play.

This marks the first time in five years that the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour will hold a leg at the BCC although it had staged tournaments twice at the nearby Camp John Hay in 2013-14.

That should make the chase for the top P250,000 doubly interesting with Pauline del Rosario headlining the field in the 54-hole event that continues to lure a slew of Thai shotmakers.

Tiranan Yoopan, Chatprapa Siriprakob, Ananya Vitayakonkomol, Supakchaya Pattaranakrueang, Chayuda Singhsuwan and Numa Gulyanamitta all go all out to foil the local aces’ bid in the tournament sponsored by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.

Korean Choi Soo Min, Fil-Am and former leg winner Cristina Corpus and Japanese amateur Kelly Marutani are also in the fold, all hoping to contend in the fifth leg of the eight-stage circuit culminating in the Ladies Philippine Masters late in the year.

Other locals in the roster are former leg titlists Chihiro Ikeda and Sarah Ababa, Apple Fudolin, Eva Miñoza, Lucy Landicho, Sheryl Villasencio, Sylvia Torres and Jan Punzalan along with amateurs Grechen Villacencio and Rev Alcantara.