Thursday, June 21, 2007 Chiongbian: The radical way to lure non-golfers By Edgar R. Chiongbian Teetime
I DIDN’T say goodbye so I won’t say hello. That’s a refrain from a song so please mister please, don’t take it personally. Truth is, I missed you too. Hey, Fathers’ Day went by pretty quick, didn’t it? No grandstanding, no big bands playing. There should have been because papa gets only one day a year while mama’s gets 364 (365 next year) days every year. Hahaha.
And another big father’s day present goes to the winner of the US Open golf championship. An Argentinean duck, el pato de Angel Cabrera tamed the Tiger at the Oakmont Pennsylvania golf course. I guess the weaknesses of the tiger are the tall grasses that impede their run. The duck, on the other hand, could care less about the tricky greens and tall rough, not even lakes!
REASON. Cousin Bruce C was right when he said the reason we have no rough outlining the fairways in Cebu is to minimize and eliminate long play and cut the time spent looking for golf balls. Let the people enjoy golf, especially the beginners and let the game continue without a hitch. Ha? That’s a big maybe because slow play is everywhere!
Alta Vista kicks off their annual member-guest tournament this week. And reading the headlines in the sports section from one of the local daily’s, it makes one feel that there is so much sponsorship money, etc. for the golf tournament. Can you imagine entering a golf tournament that can give you prizes worth millions? But do the participants really get them? Maybe sometimes, but the question is, why not always!
Of course it is a radical move from the norm but why don’t we start it here in Cebu and see what the others will do. The problem is that so much money is spent on many things and somewhere along the line the club also makes money. So why not just put all the money from the sponsors, registration fees, etc. into one big pot and give the proceeds directly to the players, minus the cost of running the tournament. No more raffles, just straight giveaways, which is as pure a prize one can get.
Let’s get rid of the awarding dinner. After all we are there for the sport not for the meal. Or let the guys buy their own dinner and inform the winners to pick up their trophies at the office the next day. Publish their names with a paid ad on all the local papers. Seems so thoughtless ha, but it sure is that simple.
Keep costs down and divide the kitty via merchandise (no cash) equally to the participants; win or lose. Everybody happy?
You bet! That would make golf tournaments so popular that people who don’t play golf will, just to get in on the action.
I know that not how it is done. But why do we have to separate the winners from the losers. Here comes an opportunity for a win-win situation, which is quite feasible if given a chance. So we should take the lead and put Cebu on the map again for another first that everyone can emulate.
HURT FEELINGS. The controversy on the Ford qualifying round continues to make a scramble at Cebu Country Club. Although it seems pretty quiet on the outside, there is still some grumbling on the inside. There may be some hurt feelings about the decision to disqualify erring players who teed off from the white instead of the blues tees.
The not so sympathetic response on the petition signed by 30 people from the CCC board is not the heart of the problem. We hear that the statement regarding “an unsolicited and fatherly advise” was not taken so well by the petitioners.
Maybe because this implies that the erring players are the young and the restless, not the bold and the beautiful. And what seems heavier than the original sin is the statement that said, “ learn from this fiasco and don’t play in any tournament without first knowing at heart the rules of the tournament... the Board has unanimously decided to set aside your letter and consider the same as a mere expression of opinion and nothing more.”
