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Thursday, June 26, 2003
Chiongbian: A different game
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Tee time
WE are all very familiar of the thin wall that separates good friends from bad friends. The wall we call friendship has a small door that wears a sign “exit only”. And once you exit, there is generally no coming back.
Yet we all take this for granted until we pass this door of unhappiness and then it is too late. Although time can sometimes be a cure as the mind becomes frail of memory and of lost purposes, it can never bring back what it was before.
The wall of friendship is made up of tolerance and truth. It will never break as long as friends practice this and exercise prudence. Its worst enemies are lies and pride, and sometimes money.
If you have not thought of this, then you may be in danger of losing friends without knowing it.
Remember, this small oversight can create a situation that is almost impossible to repair and could take years to undo.
There was an incident lately that caused a break in the friendship of two of our golfers. The conflict occurred when the group was on the green and the caddie of BA picked up the ball thinking it was a “gimme”. So BE complained and BA accepted the mistake and agreed to losing the hole on the match play.
Everything went well up until after the end of the round when all the scores were added up and the bets were paid. BE then asked for the scorecard and noticed that no penalty strokes were included on BA’s score at the hole when the ball was picked up by the caddie. What made matters worse was the winner of one corner would change if the penalty were imposed. An argument continued and now the guys are not in speaking terms.
The problem when playing with friends is that the rules are sometimes a little different.
Understanding, tolerance and compromise is the rule of the game, notwithstanding what the book says. That is why players in any group must get involved in resolving matters like this instead of letting the individuals fight it out for themselves.
Another incident that happened recently was the failure of some golfers to practice proper etiquette that resulted in a breach of club rules. The rules are very specific that no players are allowed to play the back nine first on the weekends unless the starter allows it, but shall never interfere with the flights coming in from the front nine.
On one Saturday morning while the players from the front nine were taking some drinks at the 10th tee house, another group just came and without a word, took their drives at the 10th hole to play their front nine. This naturally got the players at the tee house very upset and later went to tell them about their mistake.
As it turned out, the whole thing has not settled down because the group that teed off without permission complained to management and told people about the incident. What is ironic is that the more people they tell, the more they will look bad because ignorance of the law excuses no one.
What is bad about this is that it imparts bad feelings among members and is not healthy. Simple etiquette solves this problem so we urge our players to practice this whenever they play. After all this is our place of enjoyment and we must protect it.
Capt. Boy Opus is very unhappy with the decision of the committee to disallow the use of his modified multi-cab as a golf cart. He went around measuring all the carts and felt that his was within the same specs.
He cited that if looks were the criteria, then what about the two golf carts in the club that looks like a Cadillac and the other like a big bug. Boy said that if his was non-conforming then these two were too. But the truth is that Club Car makes special carts that are very expensive and are replicas of popular cars.
I know that one day soon, a golf cart that looks like a Hummer will be around us. This cart looks like the vehicles used by the US Marines and the media during the War in Iraq. I am sure that Boy will have something to say when he sees one of these in our golf courses.
(erc@skyinet.net)
(June 26, 2003 issue)
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