CANLUBANG, Philippines — Mercurial Juvic Pagunsan lived up to his immense status and ruled The Country Club Invitational for the third time, closing out with an eagle-spiked 69 en route to a four-shot win over Elmer Salvador at the TCC layout here Sunday.

The eagle on the par-5 14th sandwiched a birdie-birdie feat that all but thwarted a slew of challengers in the battle for the top P1.4 million purse on another hot, humid day.

The victory just underscored his new billing as Asia’s Tour No. 1 player.

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 Tony Lascuna and into the winner’s podium again with a 277 aggregate.

Salvador caught up with Pagunsan in a bogey-marred frontside battle with Lascuna fighting back from seven strokes down to move 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.

One up over Salvador at the start of the final round, Pagunsan went ahead by three with a birdie on No. 2 coupled by Salvador’s bogey on the third. But just when he thought he had heard the last of his rivals, Pagunsan stumbled with back-to-back bogeys from No. 7 then made his second worst score in the tournament – a double-bogey on No. 9, setting the stage instead for a backside shootout.

Salvador actually held on up to the 12th when he matched Pagunsan’s par game. But when Pagunsan turned up the heat with a birdie on No. 13, Salvador turned cold, bogeying the par-4 hole and dropped by two.

In a flight ahead, Lascuna went on a roller-coaster ride at the back, making a bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie stint from No. 11 and failing to sustain a brilliant start.

Marvin Dumandan rallied with a 33 for a 68 and tied dethroned back-to-back champion Angelo Que, who matched par 70, and 2009 titlist Artemio Murakami, who fired a 69, at 286. Each took home P241,671.