MANILA, Philippines — With so much at stake, expect nothing but a shootout right in today’s opening round of the JLPGA Tour Championship Ricoh, a virtual match play among 37 select players whose solid performances in the past couple of years have merited them spots in the LPGA of Japan Tour’s final major championship in Miyazaki Prefecture.

It will not only be a duel of shotmaking, iron game and putting but also a test of patience, resiliency, nerves and composure.

And there couldn’t be a more fitting way to kick off the Y120 million championship, which offers Y30 million to the winner, than to mix Ayaka Furue and Yuka Saso in the final pair of a star-studded cast.