CAVINTI, Laguna. – Chanelle Avaricio battled Chihiro Ikeda shot-for-shot and putt-for-putt and matched her rival’s closing 72 to make it two-in-row on the Ladies Philippine Golf Tour with a one-stroke victory in the ICTSI Caliraya Springs Championship here Thursday.
Avaricio fended off Ikeda’s late charge with clutch pars in the last four holes, preserving her overnight one-shot lead and clinching the victory at 217 as the latter failed to sustain a birdie feat on the 16th and settled for closing pars for a 218 at the Caliraya Springs Golf Club.
“I admire playing against Ikeda, she’s so relaxed all the time and really very good,” said Avaricio, who, however, proved better in the end as she also claimed the bragging rights as winner at two courses which hosted an LPGT event for the first time.
“I didn’t expect it but I’m very happy to win again,” said Avaricio, who beat Princess Superal in sudden death to snare the ICTSI Hallow Ridge crown in San Pedro, Laguna two weeks ago. “I missed one very short putt but other than that, I played steady.”
Meanwhile, Zanieboy Gialon dispatched Joenard Rates with a strong start and a stronger finish as he pulled away by five with a 68 and closer to snapping a long title spell on the Philippine Golf Tour.
Bracing for a shootout with the 2018 PGT Asia Summit Point leg champion, Gialon sprayed the Caliraya Springs Golf Club with three frontside birdies Thursday and surged ahead by three over Rates, who forced a tie halfway through the ICTSI Caliraya Springs Championship with back-to-back solid 68s but lost his way in the face of his rival’s scorching start.
Rates actually stretched his birdie run to nine with another feat on No. 2 but stumbled with his first bogey on the sixth and yielded another a couple of holes later. He birdied the ninth but struggled at the back with one more bogey and ended up with a 73 to slip to second at 209, now five strokes behind Gialon’s 12-under 204.
