Thursday, September 04, 2008 Chiongbian: Singh’s $10 million payday By Edgar R. Chiongbian Teetime
OKAY guys first things first. If you haven’t noticed the huge pink billboard and all the pink posters around town, you should have.
It is about the most important lecture/seminar in the Philippines this year and will happen this Saturday at the Waterfront hotel, Lahug. It’s the Silver Linings program for the cancer awareness, specifically for women.
The seminar presentation is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by resource speakers representing the best doctors in the field and there will be free consultations for the participants.
Karen Davila of ABS CBN, Pinky Marquez and many others are the moderators for the event. There will be an hour-long of testimonies by high profile personalities in the afternoon with Bituin Escalante closing the ceremonies. Do yourself and/or your spouse a favor by attending this one. The registration is only 100 pesos.
Now back to our golf topic. In case you are not aware of it, the PGA Tour “Fed Ex Cup” playoff with prize money of 10 million to the winner is already half over. Vijay Singh has already won the first two, the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championships, and can have it all without winning another one. This is much like last year with Tiger Woods, who is the defending champion.
In fact Vijay will surpass Tiger Woods as the number one on the money list even without the $10 million.
The BMW Championships, the third leg of the PGA playoffs starts today and the final leg, the Tour Championships will be on Sept. 25th. And oddly enough, the Ryder Cup will be played in the US, in between the third and the fourth playoffs on Sept. 19. Tiger Woods won’t be playing but that doesn’t mean he has been inactive, his wife is pregnant and will have their second baby early next year.
The top five in the FedEx Cup standings are Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir, Justin Leonard and Jim Furyk. Phil Mickelson is at eighth and needs to win something in a hurry just to take second place. Padraig Harrington is at 44th.
The Ryder Cup European Captain Nick Faldo has already chosen his two captains pick in Ian Poulter and Paul Casey. These two guys played good in the PGA this year and expected to do well in the Ryder Cup. US captain Paul Azinger, on the other hand decided four captain picks are necessary to win so he chose Chad Campbell, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and JB Holmes. I’m not sure if the four picks meet the Four-Way-Test of Rotary because the last two eligible players will miss the chance to play the Ryder Cup. My opinion is that Campbell and Stricker were enough and he doesn’t need the other two.
Congratulations to the winners of the 4th Cheling Garcia Cup. Eric Deen took the Garcia Cup and the overall win with a lowest gross of 69 strokes. Ramon Sebastian scored a home run in Class A to win with the lowest net score of 64, gross 76, with Jonji Chiongbian at runner up with a 76 (net 67). Class B champion was Prudgie Gesta 81 (net 66) and runnerup was Frederick Chiongbian 80 (net67).
The longest drive award went to Marko Sarmiento in the 11th hole and closest to the pin winners were Takaharu Imai in the 3rd hole, Tommy Tabanas 5th hole, Tadashi Murato 13th hole and Jaime Antunez 15th hole.
GOLT TIP. Balance is one of most important aspect in getting a good hit on the ball. That’s the reason why pros always focus on balance to get a good swing thru impact and consistently hit the ball in the middle of the clubface.
Posture also plays a big role to stay balanced. Your knees should be flexed slightly and you should bend forward from your waist not from your back.
Take notice of your finish to know if you had a balanced swing. Your right shoulder should be slightly lower than your left shoulder, and the knees and thighs close together. The right foot should be vertical to mean you have transferred your weight to your left side. The left leg should be straight but not locked with the belt buckle directly over the left foot and your head tilted on the same angle of your spine as you face the target.
