Nakajima tops 3-man playoff at Wack Wack

ORU Nakajima knocked down a 10-foot birdie putt in the first playoff hole yesterday to win the season-ending ICTSI Wack Wack Championship over Jay Bayron and Cassius Casas at the tree-lined East layout.

After faltering near the end of the final round, the 29-year-old Japanese drilled in the putt that mattered most before watching—almost in disbelief—Bayron muff a birdie try from three feet which would have extended the playoff.

Casas was left with a long birdie try when the trio played the tough 18th hole for the second time.

The 2002 Philippine Open champion, Casas was in a playoff for the second straight tournament and missed winning the event in regulation when he closed out bogey-bogey for a 73.

Nakajima became the first foreigner to win on the five-year-old ICTSI tour, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that nerves almost got the better of him in a closing three-over-par 75 for a 289 total, one-over at the ultra-tough layout.

He won P450,000.

Bayron, meanwhile, carved out a level 72. He and Casas shared the P530,000 purse coming from the combined second and third place prizes.

But the biggest letdown in his day obviously was the birdie putt in the first playoff hole.

“That’s golf, you never know what will happen until the last shot,” Bayron said in Filipino.