After claiming his maiden Asian Development Tour (ADT) victory last week, Miguel Carballo is now the frontrunner to becoming the first Argentinean to lift the coveted Order of Merit crown on the region’s secondary circuit.
Carballo, a former player on the PGA Tour, signaled his arrival in Asia by making the grade at the Qualifying School where he came in tied-20th in January and became the only Argentinean player to hold a card on the Asian Tour this season.
The 39-year-old Carballo stamped his mark by registering six top-10 finishes on the ADT and two top-five results on the Asian Tour before finally breaking through for his first victory in Asia at the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament presented by Panasonic on Sunday.
Carballo’s win, however, did not come easy as he was forced to go the distance with young guns Amir Nazrin of Malaysia and Poom Pattaropong of Thailand after closing with a solid eight-under-par 64 for a 16-under-par 272 total in regulation play at the BSD Course by Damai Indah Golf.
After Amir bowed out with a par on the first extra hole held on the par-five 18th, Carballo was locked in an intriguing battle against Poom for the next five attempts before he finally prevailed on the seventh play-off hole, which marked the longest play-off in the Tour’s history.
“I came close a lot of times this year and to finally get it done is just fantastic. The experiences from the last few near-misses have helped,” said Carballo, who last claimed a professional victory in 2014.
“This is one of the richest events on the ADT and to win it is a huge boost for me,” added the father of two.
Carballo took home a winner’s prize purse of US$19,250 following his victory and moved into the driver’s seat on the money list with a current haul of US$36,011. Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong who previously held the lead for 13 consecutive weeks, trails by about US$11,000 in second place.
Japan’s Kazuki Higa, who secured his maiden ADT title in Bangladesh in April, sits in third place with earnings of US$21,157 while Singapore’s Johnson Poh took fourth place on US$20,436.
Japanese rookie Shohei Hasegawa trails Poh by about US$2,000 in fifth position while American duo Josh Salah and Han Lee settled for sixth and seventh place with respective earnings of US$18,323 and US$16,485.
With only seven tournaments left to play on the ADT this season, players will have everything to play for when they resume their Merit chase at the PGM MIRI Championship in Malaysia next week.
The leading seven players on the ADT Order of Merit at the end of the season will earn playing rights on the premier Asian Tour for the 2019 season.
