Thursday, March 06, 2008 Chiongbian: Trend looks good for CCC men's team By Edgar R. Chiongbian Teetime
OUR boys are back in town… back in town from the PAL Interclub golf tournament in Bacolod. And when the dust settled, only two teams made it to the OK Coral. Alta Vista, our golfing warriors of Cebu South stood at the second rung of the Sportswriters Division and our three-peat champions of Cebu Country Club at the third rung of the Founders division. Mactan Island GC and Club Filipino did not exactly bite the dust; they just got blown away in the dust storm.
The third-place finish of CCC men’s team duplicates the achievement of the CCC senior’s team, also in the Founders Division. I guess it wasn’t meant to be for the CCC men’s team, but if you were a baccarat player, you would know that the Regla (trend) shows that the chance of winning this year was against the odds. However, on the same trend of X000X000X (X for a loss and 0 for win) indicates that next year will be a “0”. So guys keep the faith, the trend shows that it will be a good one in Davao next year. I still believe in magic!
Congratulations are in order for the Alta Vista men’s team of Victor Gocela, Enrico Solon, Emir Abutazil, Alex Yeo, Dennis Canoy, Wendel Yap, Toby Florendo, Kim Kwang Seok, Edsel Tan and Gio Gandiongco. And also to the CCC men’s team of Montito Garcia, Carl Almario, Eric Deen, Mark Dy, Jovi Neri, Marko Sarmiento, Joseph Stevens, Kiyofumi Takahashi, Jojo Tiongko and Nonoy Tirol.
ROTARY. Calling all golfing Rotarians. Next week we will have the Rotary District Conference (Discon) in Cebu. As part of the activities we will have an 18-hole golf tournament next Thursday and Friday at Cebu Country Club. It will be an individual and team play of your Rotary Club. I would like to thank my fellow golf committee Johnny Siao, Jonathan Yu, Julio Gonzalez and Mark Yang for their help.
Last week we bade goodbye to Jesus “Choy” Sala, who was a prominent figure, not only in Cebu Country Club, but also in the Cebu golfing community. After all, he was the brains and designer of the integrated and consolidated handicap network being used by our local golf clubs so we can join and compete in a level playing field for the club’s invitational golf tournaments.
Everyone you ask will vouch that Choy was the gentlest of all gentlemen in the golf course. We will miss his special character as we do with late Ramon Rodriguez and Cheling Garcia. Let them be the symbol and the example by which we can aspire to become a real and true golfer.
Two years ago, Choy Sala shot his age. He was 80 years old then and he shot a gross score of 80 strokes at CCC. This is a very rare feat to accomplish. At the very best, only a handful of golf amateurs can do it. Just sit back and do the numbers and I’m sure you will agree with me. Monito Garcia can do it but it will take some years yet since he is still a young chap at less than 55 years.
The only golfer I know that has a keen notion of getting this feat done is Boy Barcelo. He shoots in the high 90’s. So if he continues to play golf instead of brewing his own coffee, in 15 years he might get it done since he is only at a tender age of 82, making good time like a Rolex but not the same movement.
I will end this column with a text message I received from golfing buddy Serge Romero that reads: we may walk separate fairways but we get to the same green called friendship. So let’s pray for each other and for the others who are lost in other fairways of life, FORE…ever. Amen.
Golf Tip. When we concentrate very hard on hitting the green on our controlled wedge shots, there is a strong possibility of decelerating our shots to soften the impact. Deceleration is the biggest short game killer and the best defense for it makes your follow-through longer than the backswing.
If you can maintain the same rhythm and follow-through on all your wedge shots, an easy method of getting the yardage you need is in the length of your backswing. Varying your backswing say at one-fourth length to get a distance of 40/50 yards with a sand/pitching wedge. At half swing about 60/75 with PW/SW and a little past three-fourth swing about 80/100 yards with SW/PW.
