Miguel Tabuena is wasting no time in giving himself the best shot to win the revival of the Smart Infinity Philippine Open next week, as he goes through his yardages with a new caddy and taking his new man on the bag around the Manila Southwoods Masters course everyday.

Kenneth Quillinan, an Irishman who used to carry the bag of Sang Moon-bae in the US PGA, was broken in by Tabuena and his team at the Masters on Thursday, Jan. 16. He will be with the Filipino star for his next three events as the team would love to have that partnership going off with a bang next week.

"He's been around the big tours," Tabuena said of his caddy before playing nine holes at the Jack Nicklaus masterpiece south of Manila where the 2025 Asian Tour season kicks off starting Thursday. "It (playing nine holes) was OK."

Tabuena, the 2016 and 2018 champion, has all the motivation he needs heading into Open week: "I'd love to have my name written on that trophy more than two times. But it's going to be tough because a lot of very good players--all those who kept their (Asian Tour) cards save for a few--are coming over."

The 30-year-old will be coming off a relatively longer layoff after the last season, and he and coach J3 Altea are going through everything to make sure that his swing is where they want it.

"They exhibited great rapport out there, from what I saw," Altea said of the Tabuena-Quillanan partnership. 

"He just wants the curvature of his shots to be where they should be," Altea added after Tabuena's nine-hole practice before hitting for a couple of hours at the range, and doing putting practice with Quillanan looking intently. "So far, so good."

Tabuena stands as the tip of the Philippine sword in the 72-hole championship at the Masters, a world-class layout that will be made to play as a par-70, the first time that the course is set up that way.

The fourth and 15th holes have been transformed into long par-4s, where most in the field will be made to hit long irons or even hybrids to get to the green in regulation. 

"That's why I don't think we are really looking at very low scores everyday," Tabuena said. "The course has its getable holes, but there are some that are not. So we'll see."

Former Order of Merit winners Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand and American Sihwan Kim together with Great Britain's Steve Lewton headline a strong foreign cast chasing the $90,000 champion's purse out of the $500,000 (around P29 million) pot.