Pagunsan foils Lascuña, keeps hot streak going

LIPA City, Philippines — In a duel between the country’s multi-titled, finest players, Juvic Pagunsan edged Tony Lascuña with a pressure-packed birdie putt on the second playoff hole, claiming the hotly-disputed ICTSI Summit Point World 18 Challenge crown and saving what could’ve been a disastrous finish for the most fancied player in the fold.

But Pagunsan, who uncharacteristically blew a two-stroke lead with three holes left in regulation with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17 for a 71, rose to the challenge when it mattered most, splitting the fairway on their third trip for the day on the par-5 No. 9 and pouncing on Lascuña’s errant drive by chipping to a putter-length distance. After watching Lascuña smirk with a missed birdie off the fringe, Pagunsan rolled in his last putt then raised his arm in triumph after foiling a worthy, tough rival to mark another brilliant campaign on Philippine Golf Tour Asia.

“I’m very happy with this win even if I had to go through two extra holes,” said Pagunsan, who hacked his 6-iron second shot barely in front of the ninth green and hit a 52-degree wedge shot to within four feet.

Two behind Pagunsan after 54 holes of the $100,000 championship, the seventh leg of the third season of the circuit put up by ICTSI, Lascuña closed out with a bogey-free 69 to force a playoff at 18-under 270.

Both birdied the reachable 546-yard No. 9 on “gimme” distance but Lascuña pulled his drive to the left and barely got past a line of bunkers some 90 yards off the green the third time around. He also came up short on his approach but nearly knocked down a birdie from 30 feet out that would’ve extended the match.

“It (title) was indeed for him,” said a dejected Lascuña.

Heading to the par-4 72nd hole, Pagunsan and Lascuña hit it straight in the rain and wind but while Lascuña knocked down his approach shot to the right side of the cup, some 20 feet out, Pagunsan’s approach hit the top of the left fringe, the ball rolling sideways to the green but resting on a ridge some 25 feet out.

Pagunsan two-putted for par while Lascuña barely clinched it after his sidehill putt went inches past the cup, setting the stage for another playoff the way it was when Joenard Rates rallied from six down to beat Finland’s Janne Kaske last year.

On a break from Japan PGA Tour, his base the past decade or so, Pagunsan pocketed $17,500, the same purse he collected after dominating the PGT Asia Riviera leg last March. Vying in nine tournaments while shuttling back and forth, Pagunsan won a total of six in nine local appearances this year, including a record four straight titles in the PGT legs in Bacolod, Negros, Iloilo, where he nipped Michael Bibat, also in a playoff, and Riviera.