Clutch par putt wins it for Ababa

DANAO CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Jhonnel Ababa blew a three-stroke lead but fought back from one down twice then pulled through in another pressure-packed windup with a clutch putt to foil Kim Joo Hyung and snare the inaugural ICTSI Club Filipino de Cebu Invitational crown by one on a closing 70 here yesterday.

Resigned to a playoff duel with the young Korean after a wayward drive on the par-4 18th, Ababa played out from the 10th fairway, hit a 52-wedge shot from 110 yards to within 10 feet then drilled in the uphill putt to escape with the par and the win on a 205 total in the rain-shortened P3.5 million ICTSI-sponsored event, his first on the Philippine Golf Tour in a long while.

It was actually his fourth in the season, counting his three victories in the PGT Asia, including at Forest Hills last July where he beat six others in the local tour’s most crowded final round duel in recent years.

He did face another severe test this week – from a talent-laden international field to a tricky course to a wobbly final round stint that saw him squander a three-stroke lead he gained from the rain-suspended third round. He fell behind by one to Kim after a double-bogey on the par-3 No. 12 on another missed tee-shot and to Aussie Damien Jordan after 13 holes.

But he rebounded strong on both occasions, flashing the kind of resolve that wins big-time championships, his birdie-birdie feat from No. 14 shoving him back to the lead which he kept until he hit that errant drive on the final hole.

“I was already prepared to go into a playoff. But my caddie (Edwin Sanchez) told me to just be safe and try to salvage a bogey at most,” said Ababa. “But I made a great uphill putt and that’s it.”

That putt clinched another P650,000 purse for the former national hotshot with the victory also bolstering his confidence heading to next week’s Aboitiz Invitational at the Orchard, another $100,000 event on PGT Asia where he considers himself “lucky.”