Strong finish gives Finnish 3-stroke lead April 18, 1 SHARES Share Tweet TARLAC – Finn Teemu Putkonen made up for his late meltdown in the previous round with a strong finish yesterday, birdying two of the last three holes to shoot an eagle-spiked 68 and snatch the third round lead from Guido Van der Valk in the ICTSI Luisita Championship here yesterday.

In a leaderboard dominated by foreign aces, Putkonen finally took control after losing grip of the lead halfway through the $100,000 championship with a late double bogey Tuesday, putting up a combination of superb shots from the mound to the green to produce a second straight four-under card and a 54-hole aggregate of 10-under 206.

Teemu Putkonen

“My driving, irons and short game were simply good,” said Putkonen, who birdied the opening hole and holed out with an 11-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fifth off a solid 3-wood second shot from 260 yards. Those negated his bogeys on Nos. 3 and 6 with the Finnish still in search for a first local win hitting another birdie on No. 11 before closing out with birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 from 15 feet.

That put him three strokes ahead of Van der Valk, who pounced on Putkonen’s late-hole mishap to wrest the lead after 36 holes behind a fiery backside run of 31 for a 65 in the second round. But the Dutch failed to sustain his charge, settling for a four-birdie, four-bogey game for a 72 to drop to second at 209.

Van der Valk, however, said he would need to shoot a six-under to earn a shot at the crown, stressing: “A three-stroke lead isn’t safe here but it will still be difficult to catch him.”