Kota Kinabalu: Wisut Artjanawat stormed to the top of the ASEAN PGA leaderboard with a slender one-stroke victory over Filipino Anthony Fernando and Malaysia’s Nicholas Fung at the US$60,000 Sabah Masters today.

The 30-year-old Thai stalwart took full advantage of a hot start, which included two opening birdies in a flawless front nine of 32 to card a final round of 66 for a four-day total of two-under 278 at the challenging par-70 Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club layout.

Fernando (71) and Fung (72), who provided the early fireworks on an exciting final round, finished tied second on 279. A third straight round of 71 saw Indonesia’s rising star Rory Hie take a share of fourth alongside Thailand’s Tanatchan Puaktes on 281.

S. Sivachandhran, who temporarily led the tournament through three holes today, finished with a dismal 72 and was placed tied sixth with Apichart Papitak (71) and Gerald Rosales (67) of The Philippines.

The victory earned Wisut a belated birthday gift of US$9750.02 and also saw him re-write the record books as the first-ever four time winner on the ASEAN PGA Tour. The proven winner had previously won the Vietnam Masters and Philippines Masters in 2008 before cruising to victory at the Palembang MUSI Championship on the burgeoning regional tour last month.

“I’m delighted and very excited after winning my first back-to-back win as a professional. Everything came together for me today, every part of my game worked well and I stayed calm and focused on my own game,” said Wisut, who started the round three strokes behind Fernando but found himself ahead at the turn.

After bogeying the 13th, Wisut nailed a crucial birdie on the 16th to move two strokes ahead of the bunch but a bogey on the finishing par-four 18th left him with an anxious wait as Fernando and Fung completed their rounds.

“There was little wind in the air today which suited my game and I believe I benefited from the softer greens, especially on the front nine. The back nine was nonetheless still challenging and I was lucky that I managed to save par on the tough 11th. The birdie on the 16th was a welcome relief and proved to be my winning touch today,” he added, noting that he was prepared to go the extra mile had a playoff was required.

“It is definitely a confident booster ahead of my trip to Australia next week for OneAsia’s Emirates Australian Open. A world class field will gather there and after these two wins, I believe that I can get a good result Down Under,” concluded Wisut.

Sabah’s favourite son Fung endured a poor start in front of a small but expectant local gallery. His second shot on the par-five first landed among the tree roots and he wasn’t able to connect a clean shot and found himself in the pond for an opening double bogey seven.

“I felt a bit of pressure today as I was in a competitive group and maybe that let to a number of uncharacteristic mistakes. Obviously, I wanted to charge from the word go but the first hole was a setback. The conditions were really good today but it proved to be a tough challenge,” he said.

Unnerved, the 21-year-old Kota Kinabalu native rebounded with an immediate birdie on the second and added three further birdies on the 7th, 8th and 10th for good measure. A uncharacteristic misjudgement with his approach on the difficult 11th was his only undoing on a quiet back nine. He almost gave the Sabah faithful a late cheer on the last hole but his audacious birdie attempt from the apron just missed the pin.

“I wanted to place the ball just in front of the green (on the 11th) but I landed in the rough on the left of the green and I daft my chip-in. My aim was to play even-par on the tough Heritage nine but I guess, that was only undoing, ” shared Fung, who’s second place finish was nonetheless enough to earn him a start at the Barclays Singapore Open next week for the second year running.

The former Filipino amateur champion Fernando had a mixed round, carding three birdies against four bogeys. “It’s a fair game. I played well, I hit good shots, I had a couple of bad putts but that’s golf. On the 18th, I hit it over the green by ten yards, which made it quite tough for an up-and-down but overall I  had a good round and this tournament has definitely been one of my best in recent times,” he said.

“I shut my mind from the gallery and I wasn’t too bothered to look at the leaderboard. I told myself to stay in the present and just hit the ball as sweetly as I could.  I wanted to play well today and while I didn’t manage to shoot an even-par or better, hats off to Wisut who played better than all of us.”

Five amateurs made the cut in the event, which was making a return after a 12-year hiatus with 14-year-old Albright Chong carding the lowest total of 20-over-par 300 (73-76-80-71).

Leading final round scores
278 Wisut Artjanawat (THA) 72-68-72-66
279 Nicholas Fung 70-68-72-69, Anthony Fernando (PHI) 68-70-71-70
281 Rory Hie (INA) 71-71-71-68, Tanatchan Puaktes (THA) 68-73-71-69
283 Apichart Papitak (THA) 70-74-72-67, Gerald Rosales (PHI) 75-73-67-68, S. Sivachandhran 70-68-72-73
284 Jay Bayron (PHI) 65-71-75-73
286 S. Murthy (MAS) 74-75-70-67