Pagunsan cruises to 11-stroke Bali Open triumph
BALI, INDONESIA—Filipino Juvic Pagunsan strolled to a commanding 11-stroke victory at the inaugural $60,000 Bali Open after a final round six-under 66 Saturday.
Leading by three overnight, the sweet-swinging Pagunsan buried seven birdies at the New Kuta Golf Resort and never gave closest challenger Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden a sniff at the title.
Former Ryder Cup star Sandelin, playing on a sponsor’s invite, finished a distant second after a closing 74 while Japan’s Masaki Sakata and Martin Rominger of Switzerland shared third place.
In what was the final event of the inaugural Asian Development Tour season, Malaysia’s Akhmal Tarmizee clung on to third place on the Order of Merit to join countryman and top-ranked S. Siva Chandhran and Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Chia-jen, who finished second on the rankings, on the Asian Tour next season.
Closest challengers TJ Kim of Korea, Thailand’s Thanyakorn Khrongpha and Indonesian Rory Hie failed to produce the results to dislodge Akhmal, who had missed the halfway cut on Thursday.
But the star of the show was Pagunsan, who is a winner on the Asian Tour. He tightened his grip on the Bali Open with an outward 33 and cruised home with further birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes and totaled 15-under-par 273 for the week.
“I played well, everything worked for me this week,” said Pagunsan, who earned $10,500. “After the front nine, I was in total control. This win will be a good confidence booster as we’ve got the Barclays Singapore Open and UBS Hong Kong Open coming up.” Asian Development Tour News
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