Que now five ahead and with no plans of holding back

Angelo Que: I’ll just play my normal game. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LIPA—Angelo Que has been in this position several times before and knows exactly what to do.

“I am just going to play my normal game,” Que told the Inquirer after continuing to light up the ICTSI Summit Point Championship field here with a third straight six-under-par 66 for a five-shot lead over Justin Quiban. “Nothing is ever in the bag.”

The Open champion in 2008 at Wack Wack, Que had his second eagle of the week when he knocked in a 58-degree wedge approach from 93 yards into the 10th hole as a 33-33 effort gave him a 54-hole 198 aggregate, 18-under-par over the rain-softened yet gorgeous layout south of Manila.

Justin Quiban matched Que’s 66 and is in second, with Aidric Chan shooting a 67 to be another shot back. For all intents and purposes, they are the only ones who have a mathematical chance of denying Que his “I think [local victory No.] 21, 22, or 23. I haven’t really kept count,” the 47-year-old said.

“Both guys have the ability to go low,” Que said of Quiban and Chan, who is one of the three-day leader’s first students in a coaching career that he started to dabble in this year.

Que has broken away from the field after shooting the second-best score in the first round and tying for the best score of the last two.

“I think if you do that, you have the chance to build a big lead,” Que said. “But as I said, it’s not really [a reason] for you to relax.”

Reymon Jaraula fired a 71 and is 10 shots down, with Carl Corpus, the Asian Games team member who started the day just four shots out of the lead, ballooning to a 74 to fall 12 shots back and out of title contention.

Corpus, who will join Miguel Tabuena and Justin delos Santos in Nagoya for the Asian Games next week, is tied with Russell Bautista (69), Keanu Jahns (72) and Sean Ramos (70) in rounding out the top 10.

Meanwhile, Chanelle Avaricio carved out a gutsy par on the 54th hole to win the accompanying ladies title by a shot over Yvon Bisera with a final round 68 and 212 overall.

It was the second victory of the season for Avaricio, who could see Bisera in the flight ahead finishing with three straight birdies for a 66. First-round leader Sarah Ababa fired a 69 to finish three shots out.

“I just focused on every shot, because every shot mattered,” Avaricio said. “Anything can happen here, so I just did not try to get ahead of myself.”