Melbourne: Filipinos Angelo Que and Antonio Lascuna hope to perform admirably at the US$8 million ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf starting on Thursday to bring some cheers back to their country which is reeling from the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Que and Lascuna, who are playing in their third and second World Cups respectively, have received tremendous support since arriving at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, with the 60-man field set to wear the Philippine pin flag on their caps or shirts tomorrow as a show of support.

Earlier this week, Australia’s Jason Day, whose mother is Filipino, revealed that eight members of his family, including his grandmother, died in the worst natural disaster to hit the Philippines.

Que said: “It has been pretty tough, you know, especially after what happened in the past two weeks. Fortunately, none of our family members were affected, although my in-laws were pretty close to the affected areas, but they are okay.

“Everybody has been doing their part. Even when we had an event (Resorts World Manila Masters) last week, Liang Wen-Chong, when he won, he donated half of his earnings to the Red Cross for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. And I think everybody else, all the players, have donated their share, and the Tour and sponsors have done the same thing.”

Que said he spoke to Day during the Welcome Function on Tuesday night to extend his condolences. “I felt bad for him but a tragedy like this, it just brings everybody closer and it is a - it is sad but yet, in a good way, it brought everybody closer together.

“I think if we do well this week it will be good for the Philippines,” said Que.

“it's nice (in regards to the pin flags). It is a great feeling when people are right behind you no matter what. We are going to get through this no matter what and with the help of everybody else we are going to get through it better.”

Day, who will partner an in-form Adam Scott, will be rooting for Que and Lascuna and said he would feel as though he was playing for the Philippines team as well due to his family roots.


“I know there are guys from the Philippines here and they have got a heavy heart right now for their people and I am - being half Australia and half Filipino, you know, you typically kind of, after something like that happened, you kind of tend to bend towards that way,” said Day.

“Like I said, it is difficult and there is really nothing - there is no way to explain the things that go out towards the people that have been affected by this. I feel sad for them and hopefully, everything starts to move in the right direction over there.”

Que hopes that he and Lascuna will surprise the stars gathered for the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf despite not enjoying the opportunity to play a practice round after flying into Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon.

“We might walk the course a little bit later. I heard it is a pretty tricky course but we are pretty excited about it. It is our third week straight, but, you know, playing the course blind could help us a bit, not knowing where the troubles are,” said Que, who was not eligible to play in the Pro-Am on Wednesday.

“This is actually my fourth event playing without a practice round. The last practice round I played was two months ago. In India I finished fourth (two weeks ag0), I arrived on Thursday morning. So it was - I am kind of used to it already. With Tony, I think this is probably the first time for him to not play a practice round but I am pretty confident he is going to do well.”