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Thursday, June 09, 2005
Chiongbian: Five-some, anyone?
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Teetime
GOLF is an individual sport, but to give it some dimension, our past leaders in golf conceived a way to play it as a team sport. Although some organizers favor the team play concept, it is still very seldom used, or never in the US PGA. But notwithstanding, the most popular and very well-accepted team competition is the Ryder Cup.
The game of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, etc., share the same scenario as golf but with one big difference. The stamina needed to play the net game can be very demanding so the Doubles become the name of the game; playing a Singles match can be a heart-attack test procedure.
The standard group of four golfers in a flight is good enough to simulate a team concept. And if the golfers add a high-low match play on top of their individual game, they have the best of both worlds.
The standard rule is that a single player or twosomes are not allowed to play during peak hours on the weekends. A flight must have at least three players. But because of demands from club members, the five-some was born and is now being practiced only in the Philippines. Six-some you say? Only if you are playing with the boss of the club.
The five-some is rarely allowed by the top courses in Manila. On the other hand, our clubs in Cebu allow five-somes, except that Alta Vista and Club Filipino don’t allow this practice during tournaments because it slows down the pace of play and create problems with the use of golf carts.
If you even care to notice, 99 percent of the golfers who play regularly play with the same group all the time. The reason is obvious: Because friends want to play only with friends and rather not deal with an unknown person’s idiosyncrasies.
Even with that, it is still difficult for friends to blend happily together. And that’s why a playing group is usually limited to one flight. Our group is one of the exceptions because we have 12 players and so we split into two flights when we play. And when everyone shows up, we become three flights.
The challenge of keeping friends in harmony can be a real pain and it always goes back to etiquette. The problem when playing with friends is that the rules are a little different. Understanding and tolerance is sometimes compromised. It is important that the players in the group get involved in resolving matters instead of letting the individuals fight it out for themselves.
Friends are so important to us yet we take it for granted until it’s too late. Sometimes differences are mended as the mind forgets or people have lost its purpose, but 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.
To complete the picture, I would like to quote a player who told me this past weekend about bad etiquette. RT said, “I don’t do it to them so why do they do it to me?” Amen, I say to that!
Simple etiquette prevents problems so we urge our players to practice this whenever they play. After all this is our place of enjoyment and so we must protect it.
GOLF TIP: Proper posture is important to the swing. When bending forward to address the ball, the angle of your body should be tilted at about 35 degrees to keep in plane with your swing. Bend forward from the hip sockets and not from the waist.
Your back should be fairly straight and avoid crouching from the shoulders. Use the spine as the axis to attain the correct plane for your golf swing. This will help keep the clubface square for better ball control and maximum distance.
In your address, you should also have a side tilt of about eight to 10 degrees by dropping your right shoulder and tilting your spine away from the target.
In doing this, you will promote the shifting of your weight to your right leg during the backswing for a powerful coil.
(June 9, 2005 issue)
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