DAVAO – Like Apo’s narrow layout, this just couldn’t get any tighter – and better.

Jobim Carlos checked an impending skid with a lone backside birdie but his one-over 73 enabled three others to force a four-way tie for the lead, guaranteeing a wild, woolly finish in the rich ICTSI Apo Golf Invitational yesterday.

Veterans Mars Pucay and Elmer Salvador sizzled at the finish to shoot identical 69s while Nilo Salahog continued to impress with his guts and poise and matched par 72 for the second straight day as the troika tied Carlos at four-under 212 at the tough Apo Golf and Country Club here.

But five others lay just stroke adrift, two more stood two shots behind and another pair assembled a 54-hole aggregate of 215s, ensuring a highly charged battle for the top P550,000 purse out of the P3 million total prize in this third leg of the Philippine Golf Tour sponsored by ICTSI.

Carlos, who nailed his maiden win at PGT Asia Riviera three weeks ago, blamed his ball striking and putting for his first over-par card after a lead-grabbing 70 and 69 int he first two rounds.

“My ball striking and putting were no good,” rued Carlos, who yielded the lead to Salahog, who matched par 36, with a 38 start but regained a piece of it with a birdie on the par-5 13th.

He refused to predict the score he would need to emerge winner for the second time, saying: “It’s hard to say and it would depend on the condition of the course tomorrow (today).”

Pucay said a four-under could end a four-year title spell for the player who last won at the Players Championship at Southlinks. “With this kind of condition, eight overall could win the championship,” said the former national amateur champion, who birdied Nos. 13, 15 and 17 to put himself in contention.

Four behind Carlos halfway through the championship, the soft-spoken Salvador actually made quite a noise with three birdies at the front and tied Salahog for the clubhouse lead. But he bogeyed the first two holes at the back and needed to birdie two of the last four to likewise gain a crack at the crown.

Keanu Jahns made the biggest gain in moving day, charging back from the bottom half of the surviving 46-player field with four birdies and an eagle, negating an early double-bogey mishap on No. 3 to fire a 68 and join the fancied Jhonnel Ababa and Jerson Balasabas, unheralded Ramil Bisera and diminutive Joenard Rates at fifth at 213.

Ababa, winner of back-to-back PGT Asia legs last January, and recently crowned Philippine Masters champion Jerson Balasabas turned in second straight 70s while Bisera, hoping to nail the elusive first crown at home, mixed three birdies with the same number of bogeys for a 72.

Rates actually squandered a fiery start of three birdies in the first seven holes with a bogey on No. 8 and missed seizing the penultimate round lead with two bogeys in the last five holes to settle for a 72.

Ira Alido bounced back from a 73 and 75 with the day’s best score of 66 spiked by a four-birdie binge at the front as he tied Lexus Keoninh at 10th at 214, just two shots behind. The American produced a 71 to emerge the best-placed foreign player after 54 holes of the P3 million event organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments, Inc.

Korean Lee Song and pro-am champion Albin Engino stayed in the title race with 215s despite a 72 and 73, respectively while American Nicolas Paez shot a 70 to join Koreans Park Jun Sung and Kim Joo Hyung, who shot similar 73s, and Marvin Dumandan, who hobbled with a 74, at even 216.

Tony Lascuña, winner of the last ICTSI Apo leg in 2015, failed to sustain his second round 69 with a roller-coaster 73 marred by a double-bogey on No. 12 that dropped the former three-time Order of Merit winner to 18th at 217, five strokes off the leaders in the event backed BDO, KZG, Custom Clubmakers, Meralco, Sharp, Champion, Summit Mineral Water and PLDT.