Tabuena tops Queen’s Cup, bags P4.7 million

MANILA, Philippines — Miguel Tabuena put the Philippines back on the golfing stage again, beating some of the Asian Tour’s best players with a brilliant display of shotmaking and big fighting heart to win the Queen’s Cup crown in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday.

Hounded by Jazz Janewattananond most of the way, Tabuena outduelled the Thai defending champion in a pressure-packed backside shootout and claimed the crown with a fiery windup to close out with a second straight 66 for a 20-under 260 total.

He strung up a pair of clutch back-to-back birdies from Nos. 13 and 16 for a 35-31 card at the par-70 Legacy Golf Club, turning what was expected to be a tight finish into a runaway three-shot triumph over American Johannes Veerman, who also fired a 66 in a flight ahead for a 263.

Janewattananond crowded Tabuena at the top with a three-birdie binge from No. 11 but failed to match the latter’s solid finish, dropping instead to third with a last-hole bogey for a 68 and a 264.

“I didn’t expect it (victory) to take this long,” said Tabuena after scoring his second Asian Tour win following his breakthrough at the rain-shortened Philippine Open at Luisita in 2015. “But I’m grateful to have finally got the job done. I have worked so hard over the past few weeks and when I missed the cut last week, I told myself to trust the process.”

He went bogey-free in the first 36 holes and finished the $500,000 event with just three bogeys to pocket the top $90,000 (P4.7 million) purse.

Tabuena became the second Filipino to win a major international tournament this year after Angelo Que scored a maiden victory in the Japan PGA Tour by topping the TOP Cup Tokai Classic last September in Aichi where he banked P10 million.