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Thursday, February 26, 2004
Chiongbian: Stories from the golf tour
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Tee time
WITH only a week’s absence I am again filled to the brim with so much to say. In cell phone jargon, it’s equivalent to a new load. I was tempted to follow the shoppers’ tradition of picking the freshest stock off the shelves and do a LIFO (last in first out) on you guys but decided to just go with the smorgasbord instead.
Our trip to Manila was like a mini golf tour. We came, we saw and we got tired. In the Inner Wheel Club of P.I. golf tournament for Rotarians held at Alabang GCC, our Cebu personalities all took third placers in the individual honors, except for Cely C. who was champion in Class C ladies division.
And as our new golf saying goes, “if you want to win find yourself a good partner.” I did just that and picked Cely as golf partner so we won as the Best Couple Champion and a huge trophy weighing 10 pounds.
The following day my Coral Tee partner, Omar Cruz, invited me to play at Orchard GCC so I could meet his golfing buddies. These guys are so organized that they even have a name, “Foxwell Connoisseur and Gourmet Golf Club.”
Some members of their group playing that day were Central Bank Gov. Say Tetangco, the PNP Chief of Laguna Col. Jomar Paras, Dan Villanueva, Tab Katigbak, HSBC bankers Junie Veloso and Jerry Tan and cement king Rico Alfiler, who kindly drove me back to Makati.
Their betting is computerized with course/slope rating adjustments for different courses and a floating handicap indexing to balance the field. There are four betting schemes in their game, the domestic, regional, international and hole-by-hole bets. Once the scores are put in, the amounts of the win or loss from each player are instantly accounted for.
When I was told after the game that I was in on the betting, I almost croaked but luckily I got away scot-free by winning a corner in the regional and the international bets. I learned pretty quickly that there are no crocodiles in this group and that is welcome relief.
Back to the IWCPI convention, our IWC Cebu ladies of 20 members won second place honors for their interpretation of the Little Mermaid musical. The first placer led by Vicky Magadia had 65 members in their cast and excellent presentation that was hard to beat.
In anticipated celebration for the win, the Cebu contingent went on a trekking tour to Baguio. Four vans filled with lively Cebuanos on to Baguio with varied missions. Ours was of course to play golf. The others I am not sure about.
Then Ely de Veyra had this great idea to converge in Dagupan City, Pangasinan for our dinner break and we ended up at the house of Edna Gonzales who was shocked to see 30 very hungry people come to dinner. It is a good thing that this widowed spinster and owner of a private school had prepared enough to feed an army.
This Sunday we will tell you our golfing experience at Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay as well as other names omitted in this column.
And my golfing buddy is here from Arizona. Johnny Tee is originally from Calamba, Laguna and is in Cebu to check out the “days of our lives” Cebu version. He is quite pleased with that and now wants to adopt Cebu as a second home away from home in the future.
Aside from being quite a nice guy his other significant thing is his two-handicap. He used to be my idol, now he says that I am his idol because of my 14-handicap. I am not sure what he means but his motto is never to believe what you see, only believe what you know.
GOLF TIP: The biggest problem in the downswing is when the hands and upper body take control of the swing, emulating the classic over-the-top move. Your weight is unable to shift to the left side, the right knee pushes outwards and the club is forced to move off-plane pulling it out-to-in across the ball.
The downswing should start by moving the hips and lower body toward the target. The right shoulder stays behind, the right elbow passes closely to your right side and the club drops into the slot. The clubface squares up to the ball once your weight shifts to the left foot and left hip clears.
(erc@skyinet.net)
(February 26, 2004 issue)
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