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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Chiongbian: The best WGAP tournament
By Edgar R. Chiongbian
Teetime
Whoopee do! This was by far the best WGAP tournament in terms of performance, scoring and also weather. Cebu Country Club could have easily won the championship Diamond division with their score of 565 total points.
According to Jovi Neri, CCC definitely surpassed the high score from the last four years with the 565 points output and would have won any of the previous 13 Luzvimin tournaments. The heartbreaker is that CCC settled for 2nd place because Del Monte went on a record breaking pace with brilliant performances from their players who outplayed and outscored everyone with a whopping total score of 576 points. Del Monte now holds the new record for WGAP.
And for record purposes, this means the record was broken twice this year. What a high!
In retrospect, last year Southwoods won the championship with 550 points in the Diamond division, improving it to 563 points this year and only to make 3rd place. I believe that this year’s WGAP tournament is the beginning of the new future for WGAP; jungolfers growing up to compete in an adult environment. Unless the othersDel Monte’s Lovelyn Guioguio had a 2-over par performance on her first day and finished with 4-under par on the last two days with rounds of 74-69-71 (or 52-57-55 Molave points). That is probably an individual tournament record.
Lovelyn Guioguio is a college student in Xavier University Cagayan and don’t play as much golf as people think. It was only this year she became a scholar by the Ateneo Golf Foundation through directors Iggy Clavecilla and Andy Dumlao, upon recommendation of CCC Jungolf Chairman Jovi Neri (also an Atenean) who saw her immense potential when she played jungolf tournaments at CCC.
Although CCC lost two junior golfers (Kathleen Uy and Jyra Wong) from last year’s team because of college, the addition of rookie Abby Olea and the return of former jungolfer Kim Hong from college more than made up for that.
Abby Olea was a model of consistency, scoring 6-over par 48 points each day. That was good enough to get the highest score for the team in the pressure packed final day. This impressive performance makes it hard to believe it’s from a little girl who just turned 13 a week ago, stands less only 5-feet and weighs 90 lbs. This is the best ever debut by a CCC rookie in this tournament.
Mercy Bejar, the oldest player in the CCC team is a veteran of 13 consecutive Luzvimins. After slow start on the first two days, she turned on the after burners on the final day and scored a clutch 46 points to contribute to the team’s effort.
The top two teams, Del Monte and CCC had between them four players who played in the VisMin Youth Golf Circuit, which was conceptualized by the late Alex Montelibano to help develop the jungolf program in the south. The four players are Marian Woo and Lovelyn Guioguio of Del Monte, and Hannah Wong and Abby Olea of CCC.
The 1-2 finish of Del Monte and CCC were led by jungolfers, who were stacked up against tough Manila teams, a testament to the vision of Alex. If you’re interested, there’s an article about the circuit by Jovi Neri on the August-September issue of Golf Digest Philippines with Tiger Woods on the cover.
Other highlights of the tournament were the mother and daughter teams of Eva (sister of Frankie) and Inday Minoza, and Nenita and Lovelyn Guioguio in the Del Monte team. The hole-in-one that Eva Minoza made during the practice round, a day before the tournament. And how our jungolfers and their parents got so high with emotions that led to Jojo Hong doing a solo belly dancing during the awarding dinner.
Golf Tip: Want a power draw? Tee the ball high with at least half the ball above the top of the clubface. This will help you rotate and close the club on the downswing. Don’t align yourself to the right of target because you want to shape your shot with the release of your right arm, not with the aim.
Tilt your spine at address, moving your upper body behind the ball to give you more time to release the club. Make a practice swing, rotating your right forearm over your left and posing the club in a fully released position just after impact. The clubhead should point left of the target.
During the downswing, imagine your body slowing down just enough to allow the clubhead to arrive at the ball first. The clubhead should swing past your body after impact.
(erc@kyinet.net)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 31, 2006 issue)
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