Quiban stirs up title chase as ICTSI Iloilo unfolds

ILOILO CITY – Justin Quiban, toughened up by stints on the Asian Tour, headed straight from New Delhi to here in pursuit of a third Philippine Golf Tour championship as the ICTSI Iloilo Golf Challenge presented by MORE Power unwraps today (Wednesday) at the Iloilo Golf and Country Club.

Quiban tied for 14th in the just-concluded DGC Open won by compatriot Miguel Tabuena in India last Sunday. He and Tabuena crowded the leaders in the first two rounds of the Asian Tour event but while the latter bounced back in the final 18 holes and rallied from six down to win the crown with a solid 65, he wavered with a 73 and settled for a Top 15 finish.

But he expects to flash his top form and contend right in the first round of this week’s P2.25 million event put up by ICTSI against a mix of aces coming off a rousing battle in the ICTSI Negros Occidental Golf Challenge topped by Ira Alido.

That should stir up the chase for the top P405,000 purse with the 22-year-old Alido, who fought back from six shots down to snare the crown in a thriller of a finish, seeking to sweep the two-leg Visayan swing of the circuit organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.

But a host of others are also ready and keen on disputing the championship on a course that offers a different kind of challenge with its hilly and waterlaced makeup and its last line defense also tipped to bring out the best and the worst from the men of the tour.

Quiban scored a career breakthrough with a three-shot win over Joenard Rates in the CAT (Central Azucarera de Tarlac) Open of the PGT Asia at Luisita in late 2017 then fashioned out a five-stroke romp over Jay Bayron at Bacolod Golf and Country Club in Murcia in 2018.