RENE Menor outlasted Thailand’s Pasavee Lertvilai in a six-hole playoff to claim the ICTSI Splendido Classic crown of the PGT Asia Tour at Taal Splendido on Sunday in Tagaytay.
Menor matched Lertvilai’s closing six-under 66 to force a three-way playoff with American John Michael O’Toole at 12-under 276.
The Filipino shotmaker hit his drive on the par-5 No. 10 into the hazard but found a big lift as the Thai drove out-of-bounds.
He took a penalty shot but had a closer approach for his third shot while Lertvilai had to tee off again from the mound, enabling the unheralded local shotmaker to finish off the PGTA Q-School topnotcher with a scrambling par and annex his first-ever championship.
“I couldn’t believe I won,” said an overwhelmed Menor, who banked US$17,500 (around P890,000).
“Actually, I didn’t even expect I would be able to come back and survive a long playoff duel.”
But he did as Lertvilai blinked and wound up with a bogey and settled for runner-up prize of $11,500 in the second leg of the PGT Asia Tour sponsored by ICTSI.
O’Toole, who battled from eight down by shooting a course-trying record 64, bowed out right in the first playoff hole on No. 18, stumbling with a bogey and settling for $7,000.
Four more trips back to the closing par-4 hole failed to produce a winner and the Menor-Lervilai duel had to be brought to No. 10 for the sixth playoff hole.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
