Guido guts it out for 1-shot win

Guido van der Valk held his nerve through a brutal back-nine collapse and withstood a furious final-round rally from three hungry challengers to escape with a heart-stopping one-shot victory at the ICTSI Forest Hills Classic on Friday.

What looked like a comfortable walk to the title quickly turned into a tense, pressure-packed grind for the 45-year-old Dutchman. His four-shot cushion vanished in just six holes amid searing heat and mounting tension, but he pulled himself together just in time — closing with a clutch par on the final hole to seal a gutsy win with an even-par 70.

“No. 18’s no joke — it’s got trouble written all over it,” van der Valk said after the round. “But I hit a solid drive and followed it up with a really good second shot. That kind of settled me down and helped me finish it off.”

It was a long-awaited return to the winner’s circle for van der Valk, who had come heartbreakingly close at The Country Club Invitational in January, only to lose in a playoff. Since then, he’d been knocking on the door — tying for fourth at Pradera Verde and finishing runner-up to Angelo Que at Eagle Ridge. This time, he wasn’t letting it slip away.

Van der Valk looked like he was on cruise control early, matching Aidric Chan’s front-nine 31 and adding a birdie on the 10th to stretch his lead. But things quickly unraveled — bogeys on 12, 15, and 17 cracked the door open, and suddenly Keanu Jahns, Angelo Que, and Reymon Jaraula were charging hard.

Heading into the par-4 18th with just a one-shot lead, van der Valk needed to be perfect. He was close. A fairway-splitting drive and a laser-accurate approach shot left him three paces from the pin. Two putts later, he sealed the deal at 12-under 272 — good for the P430,000 top prize.

The final-hole par, while routine on paper, turned out to be gut-wrenching for Jahns and Que, both of whom came within a whisker of forcing a playoff.

“I wasn’t hitting great approaches early on, but I was still saving pars,” Van der Valk said. “Then from the fifth hole, I started rolling. Four straight birdies, really got into a rhythm.”

“But I guess I got a little too careful on the back nine. That’s when the mistakes started creeping in,” he admitted. “Still, I told myself to hang in there — and I did.”

Asked if he was feeling the heat from Que’s charge, van der Valk smiled. “At first, not really — I was four-under at the turn and felt in control. But after those bogeys? Yeah, it definitely got tense. But I managed to hang on.”

Despite the shaky finish, van der Valk said he was proud of his overall play and relieved to finally break a long title drought.

Jahns, who opened with a quiet 34, lit up the back nine with five birdies — including a final-hole dagger — for a 66 and an 11-under 273. Que, meanwhile, put on a show with a blistering 64, firing seven birdies in a vintage performance that left him just one shot short.

Que, who already has two wins on this year’s PGT (Pradera Verde and Eagle Ridge), looked primed for another classic comeback. But despite matching the tournament’s best round, a few missed chances left him shaking his head.

Jahns and Que split the combined second and third-place prize of P430,000.

Jaraula, who shared the 54-hole lead with van der Valk, fell behind early after two bogeys on the front nine and another at 12. He tried to rally with birdies on 14, 16, and 17 — but a failed sand save on 18 dropped him to solo fourth at 274 after an even-par 72.

Jeffren Lumbo made a late surge with a 66 to take solo fifth at 275, while Chan — hot early but cold on the back nine with a 40 — settled for sixth at 276 after a 71.

Fidel Concepcion fired a 67 to finish seventh at 278. Rounding out the top 10 were Russel Bautista (70–282), Carl Corpus (72–283), and a three-way tie at 284 between Clyde Mondilla (71), Atsushi Ueda (74), and Justin Quiban (75).