Phuket: Argentina's Miguel Carballo prevailed on the first play-off hole to win his second Asian Development Tour (ADT) title in the final round of the Singha Laguna Phuket Open yesterday.
Carballo entered the round four shots off the pace, but a birdie blitz led him to close with a six-under-par 64 and force a play-off with Kim Joo-Hyung of South Korea and Thailand's Chinnarat Phadungsil at the Laguna Golf Phuket.
Kim and Chinnarat returned with rounds of 68 and 65 respectively to tie with Carballo on a 15-under 265 total at the end of regulation play at the two-million-baht event, co-sanctioned by the All Thailand Golf Tour (ATGT).
The 40-year-old Carballo only needed one extra hole to edge out his competitors on the par-four 18th hole, after rolling in a crucial six-foot putt for birdie while Kim and Chinnarat settled for tied-second.
Carballo, the reigning ADT Order of Merit winner, dropped a shot on his first hole but recovered with a birdie on the second. He gained momentum towards the middle of the round with five straight birdies starting from the sixth hole and added an eagle on hole 14 that ensured his place in the play-off.
"I played solidly all four rounds and was hitting it good. All my birdie putts were either tap-ins or inside 10-feet and I gave myself a lot of chances. I made bogeys today on holes 1 and 18 which were the only two holes that I three-putted," said Carballo, who dropped another shot on his way home.
The victory marked his second ADT title since he triumphed in a seven-hole play-off battle in Indonesia last August and became the first Argentinian to win on the region's secondary circuit.
"I am very happy to win again. It is my second play-off victory on the ADT and it came at the right time because I was planning on going back to Argentina for a month after this. My goal now is to win on the Asian Tour," added Carballo.
