Sunday, December 24, 2006 Chiongbian: Even better than a complete success By Edgar R. Chiongbian Teetime
MERRY Christmas! At midnight tonight, it will be official.
So don’t mope if you do have some Christmas presents to open because that should be good enough to be merry and if you went to mass that would also make it joyous. But what the heck, if you choose to be otherwise that is your privilege, not a right. Sounds good ha? I borrowed that phrase from the book of sorts, which gambling casinos like to use and so does Tequila Joe’s Cebu.
So what do Francis Yu and his Sacred Heart High School Class of 1981 do? They have an Alumni Homecoming right after Christmas complete with a golf and badminton tournament. The golf tournament will be played at Cebu Country Club on December 26, while badminton on the next day, December 27 at the Racquet Zone of Montebello Hotel at 8am. Tee off times for golf is between 6-9 a.m. Reduced registration fees for CCC members. Contact Lyndon Acusar and Jun Manglapus for information on the format.
The badminton format will be men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Pre-registration can be made through the alumni office at 231-3560 for the golf and badminton tournaments. The Alumni activities will culminate with a fellowship dinner on December 27 at Casino Espanol, 6:30 in the evening. Full buffet dinner with all you can drink beer and soft drinks.
The Federation of Senior Golfers Christmas tournament at Alta Vista last Wednesday was better than a complete success. It was one of the highest turnouts of the oldies-but-goodies with 85 total players. Secondly, low scores were the order of the day. Most of the senior’s golfers turned in very low scores with some possibly going to the record books.
One big reason besides some of the guys playing really good was the yellow tees. With exception of the fourth hole, the location of yellow tees made it very easy to cross the ravines. This was to the pleasure of everyone, especially the super seniors. We should rename the tee locations as Bombi tees because he is the number one enthusiast of this location, and he still got into some of the ravines.
Jonathan Yu played the best tournament of his life with a gross score of 74 strokes; even par on the front 9 and 2-over in the back to walk away as the lowest gross champion. That gave Jonathan a 16-under par, net 56 and in very good company with two other fellows; Don Kennedy of Pamplona (Dumaguete) and Rod Senido with nets 57 and 59 respectively. These guys did not hide so we can assume from their big smiles that their super performance did outdo their handicaps.
In the Young Seniors division, Oscar Sanchez waltz in as champion with a net 60. 1st runner up went to Eul Flores — net 62 and 2nd runner up to Ed Sy with a net 63. The Mature Senior division champion was Rod Senido with his super special net 59, 1st runner up to Severino Co -net 64 and 2nd runner up to Bonifacio Sia — net 65.
In the Super Seniors, Don Kennedy ran away with the championship with a net 57, 1st runner up went to Braulio Casili — net 62 and the 2nd runner up to Tony Sikimhua — net 63. The winner’s in the guest division were Dondon Arquiza with a net 62, Alvin Suarez — net 62 and Rolando Alberto — net 64.
Thus ended the 2006 senior’s Christmas party, we look forward to next year and another year older. The next senior’s tournament will be at Mactan Island GC in mid-march.
Golf Tip: When the sand in the greenside bunker is firm and there’s no lip or only a small lip with a rounded edge, your putter can be your big savior if you know how to use it. This is popularly known in the US as the Texas wedge but in Cebu, we call this the Escario wedge.
Address the ball like you are putting on the green but play the ball back in your stance. Keep your weight in the center of your stance or over both feet. Since you don’t want to touch the sand, focus on striking the upper half of the ball. The ball will roll like it was on the green and jump over the lip.
Because you will need to overcome the little bump, make sure to hit the ball a little firmer than a normal putt. If there’s no lip, you will need just a little more speed than a normal putt.
