DANAO CITY – Guido Van der Valk bucked tough pin placements to salvage a 70 and fend off a hot-charging David Gleeson to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the ICTSI Club Filipino de Cebu Invitational here yesterday.
With Gleeson sustaining his course record-setting third round rally and pulling to within one with five holes left in a flight ahead, Van der Valk kept his poise and 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. Though he fumbled with a 73 Friday that enabled a slew of rivals to close in, the Dutchman bucked the pressure from Albin Engino and Michael Bibat with a birdie and a rash of pars in the first nine holes to stay in firm control.
“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 ended a string of sorry finishes in the circuit with a tough win at Eagle Ridge last year and banked the top P550,000 purse through a replica of the check he received from PGT executive director Narlene Soriano.
