His two-under par 68 on the final round of the HK Open where he was second two years ago, capped an unbelievable and crazy month for the player who was fighting to maintain his Tour card just 30 days ago and then reached the top of Asian golf.
"Sounds really good," he said when asked how it felt to be the Order of Merit champion.
"This is truly the biggest achievement of my career," he said. "I really worked hard for this and I will gladly accept the honor."
With the reward comes an automatic invitation to the British Open and a spot in the World Golf Championship Cadillac Championship, two of the biggest events in the global golf calendar.
Pagunsan, 32, said he will play both events and also some of the others which come as perks of being OOM champion, the first Filipino golfer to attain the status.
This includes the one-year exemption to play in the Japan PGA Tour, a lucrative series where Frankie Minoza was once a star. In between, he will play the Asian Tour and the other joint European Tour/Asian Tour sanctioned events of which the Hong Kong Open is one.
Yet, just over a month ago, he was fighting to save his Tour card. He was 40th and in danger of going to qualifying school.
But as fate would have it, things took a dramatic turn for the lean and sometimes eccentric golfer who once dismissed his caddy in the middle of a round and carried the bag himself.
He placed ninth in the Taiwan Mercuries Masters early in November and then shook the Asian golf world with a second place finish in the Singapore Open two weeks ago after a dramatic loss in the playoff.
But his runner-up finish in Singapore that included a $600,000 prize catapulted him to the top of the Order of Merit race which he managed to hold onto skillfully with a performance here that showed how far he has gone.
His OOM win practically relegated to the background his electrifying game where he shot three rounds under par (68-68-68) and had one round even (70) for a four-day total of 274, 6 under par at the par 70 Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling.
He pocketed $51,000 (roughly P2.2 million) to pad his season’s haul to $788,298 (roughly P33.9 million).
It would have been seven under but for a costly bogey on the 18th hole when he chose a safe shot over a risky one, hitting a 3-wood instead of a driver.
His tee shot landed under a tree and in the rough, giving a small window to the green. A five-iron shot later, his ball was over the green, in a lie which he described as the worst he had been in four days.
He again missed the green on his third shot and made it to the putting surface in four and one-putted for 5 which he said was a "good bogey."
His 274 total put him in solo 10th place, six shots behind winner Rory McIlroy whose birdie from the trap on 18th highlighted an amazing comeback from 3 shots down, validating his status as world No. 2.
Pagunsan moved within two shots of the lead at 7 under with his fifth birdie, behind McIlroy who was 9 under at the time, but the Filipino could not buy another birdie after that.
It was a rough start for Pagunsan. He had two bogeys in the first four holes, prompting his first- time caddy Efren Robles Jr., a Navy Golf Club pro, to shake his head wondering if the bogeys were an indication of things to come.
"Dalawang three-putts," Robles said as they walked towards the fifth.
But Pagunsan's fortunes quickly changed from there. He birdied the fifth, then the sixth and then put everything on the line when he decided to use driver on the 368 par 4 ninth, a hole guarded by a water hazard in front where a carry to the green was a must.
Confident, the ball landed softly on the green, 40 feet away for eagle. He missed it, narrowly, and the crowd moaned when it did not drop. He smiled, waved, then tapped in for birdie.
He again had an eagle putt on the 12th, a short par 5 which he reached in two.
This one was even closer of falling to the hole. It lipped out, another easy birdie.
"Those two holes were the best of the day," he said after the round as fans surrounded him for autographs and a TV interview beckoned.
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