Hot back nine has Quiban grabbing Summit Point lead over Que

Justin Quiban makes off with a strong start. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LIPA—Justin Quiban smoked the back nine with a 31 on Tuesday to take the lead in the P2.5 million ICTSI Summit Point Championship here, and Angelo Que, who will start the second round one-shot behind, partly expected scoring to be the way it was—and could be—for the rest of the week.

Quiban drained eight birdies in shooting a seven-under-par 65 that announced his return to the PGT in a loud way as he leads the seasoned Que by a shot even as 25 players cracked par with a trio made up of multiple leg winner Jonel Ababa, Aidric Chan and Jeff Lumbo just three shots out.

Heavy, sustained rains the days before have made the tournament play to lift-clean-and-place rules, and the talented field took advantage of this with former Philippine Masters winner Jessie Balasabas, senior pro Mars Pucay and young Gab Manotoc all shooting 69s to tug at the coattails of the leaders.

“The weather was great and so were the course conditions,” Que said after shooting a 66 spiked by an eagle made possible by a majestic 3-wood from 264 yards to within two feet of the cup on the par-5 14th. “Am I surprised with the scoring? Not really.”

Quiban explained it well.

“I just had to make sure I was driving it well enough to keep myself in the fairway because, if it’s in the fairway, and given that it’s wet and we’re playing under winter rules, we get to fix our lies [and be aggressive with the approach shots],” said Quiban, whose only bogey came on the sixth before he rattled off six of those eight birdies starting from No. 9.

“The strategy was to keep it in play and keep it in the fairway so I could get aggressive on my second shots, which I somehow did,” Quiban went on. “I hit it pretty close and made a couple of putts out there.”

Meanwhile, the accompanying P1-million ladies championship took on an entirely different first-round complexion with only Sarah Ababa cracking par, a 71, to lead Harmie Constantino and two others by two.

Some big guns in the division struggled as Chanelle Avaricio shot a 75 like Yvon Bisera. Princess Superal fired a 76. INQ