A lean but talent-stacked field makes it for a wide-open race vying for top honors starting Tuesday, when the ICTSI Ladies Valley Golf Challenge gets off the ground at the South course of the vast complex in Antipolo.

But there are standouts worth watching, like Mafy Singson and Chanelle Avaricio, the winners of the last two legs of the circuit, even as a huge field led by two recent international winners also gets going in the P2 million men’s event on the same day.

Toughened by stints overseas, Singson and Avaricio are seen as the players to watch in the 54-hole event, even as Carl Corpus and Aidric Chan, who won Asian Development Tour events in Morocco, loom as formidable bets in the four-round men’s championship.

“I think I have adjusted well to my new equipment,” Singson told the Inquirer after practice under swing guru Bong Lopez at Manila Southwoods on Saturday afternoon. “This would be a great week to have it tested further under pressure.”

The winner at Eagle Ridge last March, Singson will play her new equipment for just the second competitive tournament, with the first happening in China where she had a respectable three-tournament stint.

Avaricio, meanwhile, has sharpened her game in Thailand and will be coming into the tournament with the shot at back-to-back titles after ruling the Forest Hills leg.

It will not be a two-woman race, though, with the multi-titled Princess Superal and Harmie Constantino also entered together with young Tiffany Lee and the seasoned Chihiro Ikeda and Sarah Ababa.

Mikha Fortuna, the former match play champion, is also in the field and is a formidable force.

Angelo Que and Dutchman Guido Van Der Valk, meanwhile, also headline the men’s field with Que seeking to win for the third time this season after victories at Pradera Verde and Eagle Ridge.

Van der Valk won the last tournament by nipping Que and Keanu Jahns at Forest Hills. Jahns will come to Antipolo as the defending champion. —MUSONG R. CASTILLO