After Pinewoods masterpiece, Go heads to Pradera Verde as clear favorite

BAGUIO—LJ Go put the finishing touches to a very hot week in this chilly summer capital, shooting a one-under-par 71 to complete a wire-to-wire triumph in the ICTSI Pinewoods Challenge, with his 12-shot win over Jeff Lumbo the biggest margin of victory in recent years.

And it was carved out by someone who played the course exactly just four rounds—no practice round, no prior course knowledge, and with certainly no expectations before all of these began.

“I think I just missed it in the right spots,” the 31-year-old Go said after signing for a 272 total. “That was the biggest reason I won. This is a very tricky course where you can lose a ball in every hole. But I always got the chance to save par.”

The win was the second for Go and the first since the Palos Verdes stop in late 2024. It was worth P441,000 out of the P2.5 million pot and that more or less assured him of accomplishing what he set out to do originally for a two-week period.

“I can only play two events (this one and Pradera Verde next week), and that’s all the window I have to keep my card,” he said.

He now heads to the wide-open layout in Lubao, Pampanga as the prohibitive favorite after his Pinewoods masterclass, where there, he will basically battle the same field that got befuddled by a 6,000-yard layout that yielded only two sub-par totals after four days of play.

Lumbo owns the other card, a 284, also after a 71, with Fidel Concepcion, who broke through at Apo Golf last year, rallying with a 69 to finish alone in third, 16 shots behind the champion. INQ