Antonio Lascuña (left) is congratulated by Miguel Tabuena. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Twenty years from his first The Country Club win—when the course was rather a lot shorter and he was one among the young guns on tour—Antonio Lascuña became a two-time champion by being one among the oldest in the sphere and beating the modern-day face of local skilled golf.
“It’s a really different feeling; you’ll be able to’t compare it,” Lascuña, when asked of the similarities of his 2004 win, told the Inquirer in Filipino after shooting a three-over-par 75 to beat Miguel Tabuena by three shots. “In 2004, the course was rather a lot shorter and this time, I’m playing against young players who hit it far than I can.
“But I even have all the time believed that practice makes you higher,” he went on. “In order that’s what I do. I never take my practice time without any consideration. And that is the reward.”
The reward was a cool P2 million after he tallied 291 over hands-down, the hardest test in local golf. Tabuena, who opened the week with a record 64 for a six-shot lead over Lascuña and two others, closed out with a second straight 77.
Lascuña trailed Tabuena by 4 after the second round before wresting a one-stroke lead on Thursday by matching par. Tabuena obviously didn’t have his best stuff going into the last two days, as, after gunning down nine birdies in the primary round, had just an eagle and 11 bogeys in the center two rounds.
The 7,735-yard layout south of Manila yielded only one sub-par card in the ultimate three days, a closing 70 by Keanu Jahns, who finished eight strokes off with Jonel Ababa shooting a 77 to be one other shot back.
The story of the week was the resiliency of Lascuña, a 53-year-old, who beat Angelo Que in 2004, as he tried to maintain it near par within the last 54 holes.
“I just never lost focus, even after I trailed big (after the primary 18 holes),” he said. “Making mistakes out here, in these conditions, is normal. It’s on you the way you bounce back and recuperate.”
Micah Shin, the Korean-American who won here in 2018, accomplished the highest five but was 12 shots behind after a 74. INQ
