CEBU — Elmer Salvador turned a two-man showdown into a one-man show, needing just a gutsy even par 71 to overwhelm Tony Lascuna and capture the Aboitiz Invitational presented by ICTSI crown via a whopping six-shot romp at the challenging Cebu Country Club here Saturday.
Salvador lost his overnight one-shot lead early but recovered in time, then watched Lascuna fumble and stumble with atypical birdie-less 76 to fashion out the surprise runaway victory in the seventh leg of the Asian Development Tour sponsored by Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc.
He totaled eight-under 276, anchored by a fiery 65 in the third round and ran away with the top $11,375 purse (around P477,000) out of the total pot of $65,000, nailing his first international victory after two near-misses on the Asian Tour.
From an awesome 66 Friday that kept him within one off Salvador, Lascuna turned awful, making two bogeys at the front to reel farther back and yielding the crown with a double-bogey mishap on the par-3 15th and another bogey on No. 17.
He wound up with a 282 worth $7,475 and went straight home while trying to figure out what went wrong on a day the par-71 layout — with its unreceptive greens — brought out the best and worst from the surviving field.
Mars Pucay and Elmer Saban went over par with 72s and shared third place at 285 with each taking $4,095 while Korean Kim Gi-whan made a 69 for a 286 and emerged the top finisher from among a slew of foreign bets in the event put up by International Container Terminal Services Inc.
Jay Bayron, back-to-back winner of this event, including last year when it became a leg of the ADT, failed to keep going and settled for sixth with a 70 in a tie with Richard Sinfuego, who also had a 70, for 287.
Rookie Clyde Mondilla shot the day’s best of four-under 67 to snatch solo eighth at 288 while England’s Peter Richardson and Dutch Guido Van der Valk shared ninth place at 289 after a 71 and 73, respectively.