Salvador defends title, secures ADT history

The Philippines’ Elmer Salvador kept his composure down to the last hole and was eventually rewarded with a three-under 69 to become the first golfer to defend his title on the Asian Development Tour as he topped for the second year in a row the Aboitiz Invitational yesterday at the Cebu Country Club.

Salvador of Davao started the final round trailing Round 3 leader Angelo Que. For a moment, it looked like Que was unstoppable as he started with a birdie, putting Salvador two-strokes behind.

But Salvador remained unfazed and leveled the match with a string of birdies in holes No. 2 and 3.

From there, the defending champion took the lead after parring the  par-3 No.5 while Que had a bogey.

Additional back-to-back birdies in holes  6 and 7 put Salvador five strokes ahead of Que.

But Que was not to be outdone as he shaved  Salvador’s lead to just three on the back nine.

Salvador, however, continued to have the upperhand but had a scare when Que almost scored an eagle on the last hole while the former missed the green.

Luckily for Salvador, he made a birdie on the  17th, to cushion the impact of a final hole bogey and end the four-day tournament with a total of 276 after rounds of 67, 68, 72 and 69.

“My gameplan was to play it a bit cautious given a tough rival in Que and the playing condition. Kailangan talaga mag-ingat,” Salvador said.

Salvador is now $11,375 or about P490,000 richer for his effort.

Que settled for the first runner-up honors after he ended the tournament just a point behind Salvador. Another Filipino placed third in Carl Santos-Ocampo with his total aggregate of 280.

Tied at fourth place at two strokes behind Santos-Ocampo were England’s Ian Keenan, Korea’s Park Il-hwan and Netherland’s Guido Van der Valk.

Cebuano professional golfer Charles Hong ended his campaign with 283 points and shared seventh place with Day 1 leader Brian Locke of the USA and Miguel Tabuena.

Cebu’s amateur golfer Lloyd Jefferson ‘LJ’ Go finished with a decent 74 to rack up a total of 294 while Japan’s Gen Nagai, who is based in Cebu, finished with 291 to bag the low amateur crown.