Quek fires ace, cops crown
DASMARINAS, Cavite—Singapore’s Quincy Quek aced No. 16 to highlight a brilliant round of 7-under par 65 and complete a stirring comeback from seven strokes down to capture the ICTSI Orchard golf championship here yesterday.
Quek, a former amateur standout and one-time Putra Cup individual winner, hit six birdies against a bogey in the first 15 holes then scored a hole-in-one on the 16th to win by two shots in the $60,000 tournament.
He wound up with a 12-under 276 at Orchard’s Palmer course, beating erstwhile solo leader and top local hope Antonio Lascuña, Scott Barr of Australia and Taiwanese Lam Zhi Qun for the top $10,465 purse in the 72-hole championship capping a two-week swing of the Asian Development Tour in the country.
Article continues after this advertisementIt was another sorry setback for Lascuña, who surged ahead in the third round with a fiery 67 and fended off Barr’s charge in the early going until Quek, also a former winner of the WWWExpress-DHL crown at Canlubang, caught fire.
Lascuña, who led Quek by six after 54 holes and padded it to seven with a birdie on the first hole, bogeyed No. 15 and fell into a tie with Quek before the 25-year-old Singaporean came through with his ace to seize the lead for good.
The Filipino ace bet went for broke in the last two holes but failed to set up birdie chances. He finished with a one-over 73 for 278 and placed second anew after losing by six to Elmer Salvador in last week’s Aboitiz Invitational Presented by ICTSI in Cebu.
Article continues after this advertisementBut this time, he had to share it with Barr, who birdied the 18th for a 72, and Qun, who eagled the par-5 18th for a four-under 68.
Lin Kuan-po of Chinese Taipei rallied with a 66 to tie Peter Richardson of England (71) for fifth at 280 as the foreign aces rebounded from their lackluster showing in Cebu.
England’s George Thacker actually moved within one off Quek on the 14th but double-bogeyed the next hole and dropped out of contention. He finished with a 71 and ended up tied for seventh with Rufino Bayron at 281.
Ryan Bulloch, also of Australia, shot a 71 and wound up ninth at 282 while Salvador closed out with a 70 for a 283 and ended up 10th in the event sponsored by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. Asian Tour News
The final scores:
276-Quincy Quek (Sin) 69-68-74-65; 278 – Antonio Lascuña (PH) 67-71-67-73; Scott Barr (Aus) 66-68-72-72; Lam Zhi Qun (Sin) 74-73-63-68; 280 – Lin Kuan-Po (Tw) 72-69-73-66; Peter Richardson (Eng) 72-70-67-71; 281 – Rufino Bayron (PH) 70-69-69-73; George Thacker (Eng) 66-71-73-71; 282 – Ryan Bulloch (Aus) 69-67-75-71; 283 – Elmer Salvador (PH) 71-71-71-70; 285 – Jay Bayron (PH) 76-71-69-69; Mitsuhiko Hashizume (Jap) 68-72-73-72.
