Suzuki, Quintanilla Match Play champs

MANILA, Philippines — 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.