Patrick Tambalque—CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Patrick Tambalque held on well under demanding conditions and in the face of a furious Shinichi Suzuki run on Thursday, salvaging a six-over-par 78 to win the 15-18 division for boys of the ICTSI Riviera Golf Junior PGT Championship by a shot and make the North team for the Elite Finals.

The pocket-sized Tambalque gutted out a bogey on the 54th hole for a 226 for his third leg victory in the series for a 45-point total, enough to make it to the Ryder Cup-style event in October as the race for the other slots heats up with two legs to go at layouts North of Manila.

“I got nervous stepping on to the 18th tee,” the pocket-sized Tambalque, whose matchup with the 6-foot-3 Suzuki didn’t look fair, said. “But when he missed his birdie putt (on the last hole), it gave me life.”

Suzuki, the Filipino Japanese Philippine team mainstay, muffed the chance for a playoff with a par on the 54th hole, closing out with a 76 with Zach Villaroman checking in firing a 79 to finish third seven strokes off the winning score.

Villaroman, son of former Junior World champion and revered coach Carito, is running second with 40 points with stops at Pradera Verde in Pampanga and Pinewoods in Baguio remaining. Suzuki remained in third just another point behind with Kristoffer Nadales, who fired a 75 for 233, taking a 22-point total into the penultimate leg.

In the girls’ side, Gabriela Sison closed out with an 85 for a 10-shot win over Chloe Rada at 266.

Rada shot an 89 as Angelica Bañez and Tiffany Bernardino didn’t play the final round, leaving the door open for Ayesha Salino to claim third place with a 365 despite a 123.

Tambalque and Sison thus joined the Edoc siblings–Zoji (boys’ 7-10) and Zianbeau (boys’ 11-14)–along with Ronee Dungca (girls’ 7-10) and Mona Sarines (girls’ 11-14) on the winners’ podium in the fifth leg of the seven-stage Luzon tour of the ICTSI-sponsored series which will culminate with finale set at The Country Club in Laguna.