Mondilla, 2 other Pinoys earn Asian Tour cards

Clyde Mondilla wavered at the finish but still secured a dream Asian Tour card, closing out with a two-under 69 for joint 16th at the close of the grueling five-day Asian Tour Qualifying School Final Stage at the Lakeview Resort and Golf Club in Hua Hin, Thailand yesterday.

Mondilla missed turning in a Top 10 finish with bogeys in the last two holes that marred an otherwise superb round spiked by an eagle on No. 5 and birdies on Nos. 15 and 16. But his 342 total proved more than enough to net the 2017 Philippine Golf Tour Order of Merit winner a full card for next year’s Asian Tour.

A total of 40 players secured playing rights on the region’s premier circuit, including rookie pro Lloyd Go and Jobim Carlos, who barely made it to the top 35 plus ties cut with 345 totals.

Like Mondilla, Go squandered a solid 32 start with three bogeys in the last four holes and settled for a 69 while Carlos, the newly crowned PGT OOM champion, holed out with a bogey for a 70.

Four others churned out 345 scores, including Koreans Moon KJ (70) and Kisang Lee (72) and India’s Chiragh Kumar (71) and Abjihit Chadha (71) with the rest of the 71 players who survived the cut after four days settling for conditional status.

It was a dream come true for Mondilla, who after racking up four victories in the PGT in 2017 went on a slump majority of the 2018 season, snapping the slump with a convincing victory at Luisita only last October.