Dutchman pulls away by eight despite 71

TAGAYTAY, Philippines – Guido Van der Valk came charging home to shoot a 71 and pulled away from the pack with a whopping eight-shot lead over two Japanese to virtually put a lock on the PGT Q-School top honors at Splendido Taal Golf Club here yesterday.

Van der Valk, who built a three-shot lead with a 67 Wednesday, rebounded from a faulty 38 at the front with three birdies in the last nine holes for that 71 that gave the Dutch ace a 54-hole haul of six-under 210.

That was eight shots up on Tomokazu Yoshinaga and Toru Nakajima, who failed to match Van der Valk’s sizzling windup at the up-and-down layout and settled for 70 and 76, respectively, for a pair of 218s.

Yoshinaga, nine strokes behind at the start of the round, actually pressed his bid with a fiery 33, spiked by four straight birdies from No. 6, to move within four. But he stumbled with a birdie-less 37 at the back and fell way behind.

Nakajima never recovered from an opening 39 and wound up with a 37 for that four-over card.

Still, the three foreign bets assured themselves of cards on this year’s 17-leg ICTSI-Philippine Golf Tour firing off next week at Sherwood with Belem Arancon still the leading local player at No. 4 with a 224 after a 76.

Amateurs Agustin Mata and Chris Mamaril had 72 and 75, respectively, for joint fifth at 226 while another foreign entry, Phil Cho, carded a 73 to tie Paul Echavez and Jude Eustaquio, who both had 76s, at 227.

After scrambling to make the halfway cut, Artemio Murakami settled with a 74 to move to joint 24th at 233 heading to the final round of the 72-hole elims conducted by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.