|
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Chiongbian: Record high at Coral Tee
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Teetime
The 25th Coral Invitational golf tournament has come and gone and everybody went home happy. Unfortunately, only a handful could win so the big smiles were limited to a few as the rest, wait for another year to try and acquire that same smile.
It was a record high of participants for the coral tee and amazingly the golf course was relatively light on all five days. The double barrel and 10-minute spacing on the tee times had plenty to spare that the tournament looked like an ordinary Sunday outing on each of the five days.
The tournament could have accommodated more or easily 600 players but I believe they ran out of members who were willing to play in the member-guest format. Increasing the Guest division next year might be a good option if the committee wants the tournament to take in more players.
Congratulations to Jonji Chiongbian and Mike Celdran as the overall champions of the Coral Tee and also for taking the top prize in the Calcutta. Willy Lim got the highest total points in the tournament with his 47 and 41 or 88 points but shy of two points to the top score of 156 of Chiongbian and Celdran to land once again as the champions in the Senior division with partner Danny Pizarro.
Wendell Yap and Roy Damole settled for second place overall with a score one point short of the champions. Four points behind were Henry Chin Uy and Stewart Go taking third place away from Arturo Go and Jimmy Cham via countback.
Second-place honors in the Seniors division went to Orly Israel and Ben Paca and in third place were Bugs Unchuan and Pepito Alvarez. Bugs shot a 39 and 47, which means he has gotten rid of the shank.
My partner Omar Cruz and I once again got into the Calcutta but short in performance. So that made David Chan, our group leader for the Calcutta who said that he hopes we won’t get in next year to save money. How’s that for no confidence, but I can’t say I blame them because the competition is something fierce.
Hey, this was one of the best Sinulogs that I could remember. Traffic was bad but tolerable unless of course you wanted to be near where the action was. The weather was cool, the parades and processions went smoothly. The attendance was overwhelming and probably the most that it has ever been. There were tons of people at the Ayala mall for the fireworks and live bands but the sight to see was at Fuente Osmeña after the parade on Sunday. There was wall-to-wall people that the Fuente and circular road around it were filled with more than 20 thousand people. It seemed like there were more people there than at the Cebu City Sports Center.
In case you have not heard yet, the Rajah Park Hotel on Fuente Osmeña will become another popular place to go at night. Their lobby lounge is all new, with very nice ambience and a good live band. I predict that this will be a golfers’ lounge later on as the new management is into golf and Edgar Lao is there to pay attention to details.
GOLF TIP: Tests have shown that maximum distance is achieved from high shots with less backspin. Many golfers are hesitant to tee it high for fear of sky shots. The new jumbo drivers of today are designed to hit soaring shots but you need to do two things to accomplish this. Catch the ball on a slight upswing and make contact in the middle or just above the middle of the clubface.
So tee the ball high and high enough that the bottom of the ball is about level with the top of the driver. Play the ball opposite your left instep to encourage an upward angle of attack. Be confident with your swing and keep in mind that if you miss the ball high on the clubhead, it will not cost you much distance but missing it low will create backspin and you will lose distance.
(erc@kyinet.net)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 19, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
