Angelo Que ends up 49th; Micah Shin falls short

MANILA, Philippines — Angelo Que turned in his worst round in four days, a birdie-less six-over 77 and wound up at joint 49th in the Asia Pacific Diamond Cup Golf 2019 won by local bet Yosuke Asaji at the Sobu Country Club in Chiba, Japan yesterday.

Reeling from a third-round 73 that dropped him to 45th Saturday, Que went on an attack mode in a bid to gain some strokes but yielded shots instead, bogeying Nos. 2, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 17 while missing a couple of birdie chances to finish with a 296.

That was 15 strokes behind Asaji, who pounced on Micah Shin’s wobbly early backside stint to snare the crown at 281.

Shin, who led in the second round but slipped to third Saturday, birdied the first hole to stay in the thick of things. But bogeys on Nos. 9, 11 and 13 ruined his bid that even an eagle on the par-5 14th failed to rattle Asaji in a tense-filled battle in the closing holes.

The Davao-based Shin also ended up with a 72 for a 282, settling for a tie with amateur Ren Yonezawa, who shot a 68.

“It’s really disappointing as I tried my best to catch him (Asaji). But I wasn’t driving it so well and it was tough. When I stepped up to the tee, I just told myself I got to get the ball on the fairway because if I can do it, I’ll have a good chance for at least a par or birdie. I haven’t been playing well lately and I needed a result like this to boost my confidence. So if I can look on the bright side, I know I have the game to do well and hopefully, this is the start of better things to come,” said the reed-thin Korean-American.