CAVINTI, Laguna – Tony Lascuña kept defying Father Time, ending a pair of runner-up finishes with a dominant wire-to-wire win in the ICTSI Caliraya Springs Championship Friday, April 21, at the Caliraya Springs Golf Club here.
He closed out with a 69 and beat Asian Tour campaigners Angelo Que and Lloyd Go by three on an 18-under 270 total that included rounds of 68, 66 and 67, keeping his overnight four-stroke lead as firm as he kept his form through sheer training and teaching through the years.
Not even a bogey on No. 15 could derail the 52-year-old shotmaker’s march to another championship after claiming the inaugural ICTSI Match Play crown at Villamor last year as his pursuers all failed to mount any last-gasp attack in baking heat on this mountain-top course.
“I’m so thankful that I was able to win it. I kept an eye on Angel (Que) and Clyde (Mondilla) and just did what I did in the first three rounds – fairways and greens and make the most of my (putting) chances,” said Lascuña,
His frontside 34 practically held off his rivals’ charge as he stayed four shots ahead heading to the last nine holes.
Though Que pressed his bid to pull within two in a flight ahead of the championship group of Lascuña, Mondilla and Reymon Jaraula, the Davaoeño ace kept his nerves in check and hit clutch birdies on Nos. 12 and 14 to keep a three-four shot cushion on his way to victory worth P450,000.
Go and Que each received P232,500.
Jaraula, who edged Lascuña in two extra holes to annex his first PGT win at Pueblo de Oro in 2019, also turned in a bogey-free card but his 69 could only net him a solo fourth place finish at 274 worth P132,000.
While Go sustained his final round charge, a solid 66 highlighted by a final-hole birdie, the 28-year-old Cebuano still fell way short of his breakthrough bid on the Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.-organized circuit.
But his closing six-under card netted him a joint runner-up finish with Que at 273 after the latter lost steam while trying to cap a blistering rally in the last 36 holes that produced a course-record setting 64 Thursday.
The three-time Asian Tour kept his charge going in the final round, birdying four of the first nine holes and adding two more on Nos. 11 and 12. But a bogey on the next all but scuttled his bid as he settled for a run of pars the rest of the way to finish with a 67.
