Pagunsan finishes with a flourish, nips Lascuña in playoff

Juvic Pagunsan. –CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Juvic Pagunsan finished regulation as hard as he could on a course he admits to having trouble playing before thwarting Antonio Lascuña in the first hole of sudden death to rule the P2 million ICTSI Riviera Challenge of the Philippine Golf Tour in Silang, Cavite on Friday.

Pagunsan also had help, as Lascuña double-bogeyed the 72nd hole, with both finishing at 289 after final rounds of 71 and 69 at the demanding Langer layout, respectively.

The sweet-swinging Japan Tour mainstay dropped an eight-foot par putt on No. 18, something he set up from a delicate blast out of the greenside trap, as he won again on local soil since before the pandemic started.

“It was very tough this week,” Pagunsan later said in Filipino. “I really do not know how to play (this course). The conditions change every time and the greens are very unpredictable.

“I guess I was also lucky to catch (Lascuña),” he went on. “I was playing behind the lead the entire round.”

Fidel Concepcion, who held the lead at the end of the first and third rounds, blew up when it mattered, signing for a fat 80 that left him five shots off the winning score.

The Langer layout demanded nothing but the best from the talented field as it yielded just three sub-par rounds Friday and only a total of 10 the entire week.

Zannie Boy Gialon fired a 73 to finish a stroke out of the playoff, with Rico Depilo, second round leader Guido Van Der Valk of the Netherlands and Orlan Sumcad tying at 291 after efforts of 75-76 and 69.

“My birdie on 17 was key,” Pagunsan said. “And I got the chance to get into a playoff with that unfortunate double of Lascuña.”

Lascuña was in a group ahead of Pagunsan and held a two-shot lead going to the final hole. But finding a fairway bunker off the tee forced him to layup, only for the former Order of Merit champion to overshoot the first green. He needed three more strokes to hole out.