Chan gains PH Am title shot at Ong

Filipino teener Aidric Chan hacked out a 2 and 1 victory over Singapore’s Joshua Ho to reach the title match of the Philippine Amateur Open match play championship at Orchard’s Player course.

Chan’s victory made up for the 4 and 2 loss of top local bet Rupert Zaragosa to Singaporean national team mainstay and tournament top seed Marc Ong even as Harmie Constantino and Sam Bruce arranged an all-Filipino showdown for the women’s crown.

Chan parred the 15th and 17th holes for the key shots that downed  the hard-fighting Ho.

Ong, meanwhile, rallied from 1-down after eight holes with three straight birdies from No. 9 to stop Zaragosa on his tracks and deny the multititled Filipino  a second straight national championship after pocketing the PH Junior stroke play title just last week at Eagle Ridge.

“My short game was just tremendous today,” said Ong. “I knew I could attack some pins so I did so with precision.”

Constantino, meanwhile, scored a 1-up victory over Bianca Pagdanganan, while Bruce was authoritative in a 4 and 3 ripping of Annika Guangko in the semifinals.  Musong R. Castillo