Shinichi Suzuki picked himself up from a stumble out of the gates on a damp Saturday and once he got going, didn’t give Rolando Bregente a chance in their much-anticipated title clash in the NGAP’s National Match Play Championship.

Eight birdies inside the last 16 holes of their first trip at rain-dampened Luisita in Tarlac had the Filipino-Japanese going into the halfway break of the 36-hole finale with a 7-up lead, before Suzuki put Bregente out of his miseries with an 8&7 victory that meant his first national title.

Grace Quintanilla, meanwhile, added a second straight national title in a span of less than a month after outlasting Precious Zaragosa, 1-up, in the ladies’ final that almost needed all of its 36 holes to conclude.

Holding a 3-up lead with three to play, Quintanilla, who entered the knockout stages as the No. 1 seed, hung tough with a routine par on the 36th hole proving enough to clinch the win and end Zaragosa’s giant-killing run.

Zaragosa, the 15-year-old whose older brother Rupert was a many-time PH Am champ, won the picturesque 17th hole in their two trips there, but just fell short in winning her first national ladies title.

The 19-year-old Texas State University standout Quintanilla added this championship to the Singapore Amateur Open (stroke) title she won last 18 July at the Bukit course to underscore the sharp form that she is in.

“I am just very happy to have played the way I did,” Suzuki, the 18-year-old playing out of Manila Southwoods, said after his runaway win, which was spiked by an eagle on their second trip to No. 5 that snuffed the fight out of Bregente. “I had a really bad start and just worked on getting back.”

A member of several national teams since his mid-teens, Suzuki opened up bogey, double bogey to trail before catching fire on a chilly morning to take command as Bregente never found his rhythm and settled for second place as the No. 1 player after classification.

“I just had this great mindset since the week began,” Suzuki, who entered the knockout stages seeded second, continued. “I guess you could say that match play is my specialty. I just love playing these matches.”

“Shin played really well. Congrats to him,” the 24-year-old Bregente said in displaying class, paying tribute to how well his conqueror played. “He was in a complete zone. He was totally dialed in. Anyone would have had a really tough time beating him today.”