|
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Chiongbian: The 18 holes at St. Andrews
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Teetime
The big tournament (business in golf) at Cebu Country Club went extremely well last Thursday and Friday and tournament chairman David Chan was noticeably wearing a smile stretched from ear to ear throughout the awarding while Rolly Santos was soaking his sore throat with San Mig Lites from two days of announcing. Platinum sponsors Petron and PLDT looked appreciably contented with the outcome that they may never give this deal up unless a bigger fish comes along and takes it
away.
My flightmates were Petron execs Lito De Jesus and Eric Ouano, and Jorge Buenaventura of First Datacorp, who represented Microsoft for the tournament, and of course, Boy Limkakeng. We had such a great time that we didn’t even notice the greens were heavily aerated but definitely our putting miscues were punishably embedded in our scores. And our HP team still managed to do fairly well, however the other teams handled their predicament better than us. And the biggest buaya, err, the Big Player of the Year was Manning Granada, who already had won this title before. Not only did Manning get the BIG trophy, he also walked away with loads of raffle prices.
Hey man, it is almost Copa time, a golf tournament with a splash! And the big day is June 30 at Cebu Country Club. There is only a handful of team slots left but if you work on the two Nonoys, Tirol and Alba, you might still get in.
The organizers have promised the shortest awarding but the longest awarding dinner that you will ever remember because the hottest new concert band from Manila will be playing right after the obligatory stuff is over. The Bloomfields will play their hearts out for you with songs from the Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Shadows, The Ventures, Dave Clark 5, Cliff Richard and other great ’60s bands. The band is composed of five gentlemen who are graduates of La Salle Greenhills.
Last March 2006, the Bloomfields opened for the Herman’s Hermits in Manila. So get ready to listen, sing along, dance, twist and shout with a Beatle-mania band complete with mop heads. It’s free for the players, P500 for their spouses and P1, 000 for non-golfers, dinner included. What a deal.
I love to tell people the story of why we have 18 holes, not 20 or more in one round of golf, and so I will tell it again. There are other versions but I believe this has more logic put into it. In the 15th century when the golf course at St. Andrews was first built, their golf course was made up of 22 holes, eleven in the front and eleven in the back.
Twenty-two holes were it because that’s how many holes would fit in the property of St. Andrews. When they designed the first course, holes were laid out end-to-end from the clubhouse to the back of the property of St. Andrews and they ended up with 11 holes. They made another set of 11 holes going back to the clubhouse. In the year 1764, they combined shorter holes and the number of holes was reduced from 11 to nine holes, or a new total of 18 holes.
Other golf courses made as many holes as they wished and not every golf course had the same number of holes; some had more, some had less. When the golf clubs formally recognized the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews as the rule-making body in the late 1890s, all the clubs agreed and adapted the 18 holes of St. Andrews as the standard. How simple and random can it get!
GOLF TIP: What to do when you’re putting on greens that are in sub par condition. The idea is to understand the behavior of the ball during a putt. The golf ball will always skid a little before it starts to roll, and the distance of the skid will depend on how hard you strike the ball and the manner by which you putt the ball.
The tendency for the ball to be deflected is greater when it’s skidding than after it has developed enough inertia to roll end over end. The earlier the ball is knocked off-line, the bigger the error at the end of the putt. So on greens with spike marks, bare spots and uneven cuts, the idea is to start the ball rolling as early as possible. Place the ball a little forward at address and strike it past the bottom of the putting arc or slightly upswing, and hit it a little firm.
(erc@kyinet.net)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 25, 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
|
