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Thursday, February 09, 2006
Chiongbian: Doctors would love to play golf
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Teetime
Well, how about another month of social golfing amidst the tourists. Soon after the vacationers for the Chinese New Year left, our sister club Rotarians from RC Bagumbayan-Manila, led by president Jimmy Ang, came to visit us. When they left, our Rotarian brothers led by president Masahiro Kugata of RC Yotsukaido, arrived from Japan. And engraved in our schedules are the mini golf tournaments. So off we went crisscrossing between Alta Vista and Cebu CC.
I told many of our visitors that the Club Filipino golf course is one of Cebu’s hidden treasures for golf and not too far behind is the Mercedes Plantation GCC.
I was tempted but did not talk about Kang-irag because that is Cebu’s buried treasure. By the way, Bobit Avila has returned to the Rotary Club of Cebu and is in our golf team. So if he mentions golf and Rotary in his column don’t act surprised.
In almost all Rotary functions, there is always a golf outing or tournament on the line. So if you want to learn golf, do some community service and gain new friends – join the Rotary. This is the easiest and cheapest way to golf. The other option is join the doctors group since they represent a good number of golfers in Cebu but unfortunately you have to become a doctor to be in.
The favorite sport of doctors is golf because they need to do something on Wednesdays, their day off. Plus they have sponsored golf tournaments every month that gives out nice prizes. Yet not all golfing doctors avail of this chance.
They tend to just bond together with their co-specialists but never get to play together because they have to cover each other’s work.
These guys are neurosurgeons Wyben Briones, Boy Layno and Ben Aldana, the head experts in Cebu. Another group is Edgar Tan, Arnold Tan and Jun Chio, the heart experts in Cebu. These guys love or want to play golf but have no time for it. But don’t you worry, others have managed, they will find a way. Ben Aldana did.
A couple of weeks ago in one of the fairways, we got talking with Ricardo Go, whom Ed Misa calls the handsomest of the Gos in the Sulpicio lineage. He was only two over par before the sixth hole, until he inadvertently said that he dumped two balls in the water. This was immediately corrected by his flight mates, “No not two but three balls in the water.” The scorecard was accurate so there was no cheating involved.
But what comes to mind is how a golfer’s mind can only count up to two or three strokes beyond par. Then it dawned on me that a karaoke in the lake could give a player some nice benefits because it counts as two strokes. In karaoke, it’s minus one because the vocals are eliminated. The karaoke in the lake is minus two, that means no sound from the player and the caddie, just a little scratchy noise from the pencil on the scorecard, like a scratch in the CD.
GOLF TIP: What to do with an uneven lie. If the ball is below your feet, bend more than normal from your knees and hips, and make your chest point at the ball. Take a practice swing and see where the club bottoms out and use that as the guide where to place your ball in your stance. When the ball is below your feet, the ball should be placed just back from the center, and aim left of the target because the ball will tend to fly from left to right. Take one extra club to keep your balance and swing easier to get solid contact.
If the ball is above your feet, stand taller than normal so your chest points to the ball. On severe slopes, grip down one or two inches to maintain the proper distance between your body and the ball. Position the ball just forward of your distance and aim a little to the right of target because the slope will help curve the ball to the left. Take an extra club and swing easy to keep your body stable and not ball back.
(erc@skyinet.net)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 9, 2006 issue)
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