CANLUBANG – Juvic Pagunsan lived up to the hype and reigned at The Country Club Invitational for the third time, closing out with an eagle-spiked 69 and beating Elmer Salvador by four at the TCC layout here yesterday.

That eagle on the par-5 14th sandwiched a birdie-birdie feat that thwarted a slew of pursuers and all but turned what had been a tight, fierce battle for the top P1.4 million purse on a hot, humid day into a one-man show by Asia’s No. 1.

Like in the third round where he strung up three birdies from No. 14 to surge ahead, Pagunsan came through with a spectacular birdie-eagle-birdie binge from No. 13, racing away from Salvador and Lascuna and into the winner’s podium again with a 277 aggregate.

Salvador caught up with Pagunsan in a bogey-marred frontside battle with Tony Lascuna fighting back from seven strokes down to within two at the turn with a solid 32.

But the challengers ended up empty-handed in the face of Pagunsan’s fiery finish with Salvador finishing with a 72 for a 281 and Lascuna taking solo third at 283 after a 68.

“I did everything to win but he’s (Pagunsan) really good,” said Salvador, who settled for P690,000.

Pagunsan nipped Frankie Minoza to capture his first TCC Invitational crown in 2006 then routed the elite field to win for the second time in 2008.

“My goal was to close in on them but I lost my momentum. Still it was a great finish,” said Lascuna, winner here in 2004 who received P430,000.

While Pagunsan turned hot at the finish the way he did Saturday, he also continued to give cold-shoulder treatment to the media, whom he ignored and snubbed for the nth time.

He deemed it better to do the talking on the course.