Van der Valk rules Cebu golf

DANAO City, Cebu—Guido Van der Valk bucked tough pin placements and toughened up down the stretch, hitting a clutch birdie to salvage a 70 and complete a wire-to-wire victory in the ICTSI Club Filipino de Cebu Invitational here Saturday.

With a charging David Gleeson sustaining his course record-setting third round rally and pulling to within one with five holes left, Van der Valk birdied No. 14 from six feet to regain a two-shot cushion then parred the rest to save a 34-36 card and snap a 14-month spell with a 10-under 274 total for his second victory on the Philippine Golf Tour.

“I played solid and kind of anticipated the change in the position of the holes,” said Van der Valk, who anchored his romp with 66-65 in the first two rounds to post a six-stroke lead. However, he fumbled with a 73 Friday that opened doors for his rivals.

“It’s always war whenever you’re on the [golf] course and I hit a lot of greens and it’s nice to win again,” said Van der Valk, who banked the top P550,000 purse.