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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Chiongbian: 1Do away with the antics
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Tee time
KUNG Hei Fat Choi! Aren’t Cebuanos so lucky we get to celebrate Christmas, New Year, Pista Senior and Chinese New Year with only a few weeks apart? On the other hand, this could prove to be a real test to one’s ability to carry out the art of giving or “miss” giving. Bah Humbug!
Now that we have started the year with the blessing of the Santo Niño and the monkey is on the run, let us hope that the year 2004 will be better than last year, not just older.
So once again the winners of the Coral Tee demonstrated that scoring in our golf courses is as easy as ABC. Having played with Billy Canedo many times before, I can agree that his 12-under 48 points was a fluke. But with partner Mar Selma also scoring 7-under 43 points, their total of 91 points is now the top score in the record books.
The teams of first cousins Gahum Garcia and Jayjay Neri also came to the battlefront with impressive final scores of 87 and 85 points, respectively. Whilst any ordinary Sunday these scores would have been good enough to bag the top trophy, it only landed them the second and third place. Still not bad when you consider the Calcutta was part of the ransom.
The second big news in the tournament was the escapade or the misadventure of Kenneth Ngo on the third hole of the country club. His ball landed on the small island in the middle of the huge water hazard, which would normally be a penalty.
But he decided to save this penalty by highjacking a maintenance boat and oared to the island. As it turned out, his next shot still went into the water. Since you cannot drop a ball in the hazard, he was forced to go to the dropped area and ended up zero points for the hole anyway.
In retrospect, he could have saved a point or two if he took the penalty and dropped another ball right away. While this was so much fun for Kenneth and his friends, others were not too amused with his antics. This was because the hole had already backed up and other players wanted to go on with their game.
To put this in perspective, the rules of golf allow only five minutes to find or identify your ball.
After that a penalty is assessed for a delay of game. For Stableford, the penalty is a deduction of two points from your total round, even if you have a zero on the hole. So it is definitely not worth it.
A good question is whether a player is allowed to use an implement like a boat, bicycle or stilts to traverse the hazard. We ask that our golf committees look into this for proper ruling. Better yet, they should just come up with a local rule to prevent others from trying this maneuver in the future. Otherwise, we will all be doing it.
If any of you guys come across Larry Wood at the golfers lounge or in the fairways at Alta Vista, do not hesitate to say hello to him because he is the nicest guy you can ever meet. He is a resident of Las Vegas and is here on an extended vacation with his Cebuano wife Joy.
He is my second choice as favorite golfer in Alta next only to Choy Ezpeleta, the man with the silent laugh. Oddly enough Larry is starting to follow the style of laughter of Choy. Fore Bida!
GOLF TIP: The most common putting grip is the reverse-overlap. If you use or want to use this grip, you need to understand the mechanics of the grip.
The club should rest in the palm of the left hand and not the fingers. This prevents the left wrist from breaking down through impact, prematurely closing the putterface.
Grip the putter with your left hand first then your right making sure that both palms are parallel to the putterface to allow the hands to operate as a single unit. Both thumbs, the right covering the left thumb, must be on the top of the shaft to neutralize the role of the hands. Finally the left forefinger should be resting on top of the right-hand fingers to unify the hands.
(erc@skyinet.net)
(January 22, 2004 issue)
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