Zanieboy Gialon lets out a fist pump after sinking the final putt for a 68 and sealing his first win in two years. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Zanieboy Gialon ended a two-year winless drought in style on Friday after shooting a two-under-par 68 and watching his closest pursuers fade away on a truly humid day, ruling the P2.5-million ICTSI Iloilo Golf Challenge of the Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) by an astonishing six shots over Angelo Que and Ira Alido.
“It’s the product of all the hard work I have put in, especially after two missed cuts,” Gialon told the Inquirer in Filipino after tallying a 72-hole 267 where he shot 20 total birdies at tight, age-old Sta. Barbara, nine of them in the second round when he wheeled into contention by signing for a 64.
“I really putted well the whole week,” he said as he capped a dominant performance by canning a 20-footer for birdie for his sixth career title. “It was tough out there, especially with a lot of players giving chase.”
Gialon started the day two shots ahead of Jonel Ababa, who bombed out of contention with an opening double bogey, before Alido and Que became the new pursuers. But Gialon responded to the threat and closed out birdie-par-birdie to win with authority.
Ababa went on to shoot a 76 and barely finished in the Top 10, while Que assembled a 66 and Alido, who came within three shots in the back nine only to bogey Nos. 15 and 16, fired a 68 for 273s.
“It may have looked easy, but it definitely wasn’t,” he said.
Que goes bogey-free
Fidel Concepcion, the leader in the first two rounds, closed out with a 71—his second straight overpar card—and was caught at fourth spot by Antonio Lascuña and Guido van der Valk, who fired a 69 and 68, respectively, for 274.
The win was worth P450,000 as Gialon prepares to close out the season in an even louder way.
Que and Alido settled for P232,500 each, and Que could only look back at a roller coaster middle two rounds as what did him in this week. The former Philippine Open champion played the final round bogey-free, with five of his seven bogeys for the week coming in the second and third rounds.
The final two stops of the circuit will be in Bacolod, at tree-lined Binitin and the tight Marapara layouts, where precision more than power will be the premium.