Juvic Pagunsan finished one shot behind champion Prayard Marksaeng of Thailand yesterday at the close of the Singapore Open golf championship.
The Japanese Tour regular missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th that could have forced a playoff. He wound up with a 70 and 276 overall.
At one point, Pagunsan and Angelo Que were tied for the lead, but both Filipinos struggled coming home.
After collecting three birdies in the first 11 holes, Pagunsan stumbled with back-to-back bogeys starting on the 12th before closing with five straight pars.
Pagunsan had a chance to set up birdie on the 542-yard finishing hole after clearing the water behind a 285-yard tee shot. However, he found the greenside bunker on his second shot and failed to wedge it close to the hole.
Que, on the other hand, drove to the water twice in the final three holes and closed out with a 74 for 279.
He was just one shot behind Marksaeng going into the 16th, but a bad tee shot resulted in a bogey. He barely missed a birdie try on the 17th before dumping his tee shot into the water on the 18th for double bogey.
Pagunsan consoled himself with a joint runner-up finish worth $66,000 (about R3.3 million) while Que collected $14,721.43 (R735,000) for tying for 11th place.
Miguel Tabuena shot a 73 for 286 while Antonio Lascuña had 73 for 287.
Tabuena settled for $4,900 (P244,000) while Lascuña fetched $3,787.50 (P189,000).
Marksaeng shot the day’s best round of five-under par 67 to complete a come-from-behind victory.
He was at the clubhouse with a nine-under par 275 total and watched his rivals try and fail to catch him.
Tying Pagunsan at eight-under were Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand (71), Jbe Kruger of South Africa (69) and Song Younghan of South Korea (69).
Top favorite Adam Scott of Australia finished at six-under after a 74.
The event also served as a qualifying tournament for the British Open which offers four spots to the top 12 finishers.