Thursday, November 06, 2008 Chiongbian: Time flies fast in November By Edgar R. Chiongbian Teetime
WELCOME to the month of November. Time flies when you’re having fun and next thing you know, it’s Christmas. I was checking out the birthday celebrants for November, which is published by the local dailies every month and I wondered that since they already have a list of popular names of the month they should do more. Like the flavor of the month or to be more cool, rank them and come up with the King and Queen of the Month. Yeah, those in favor say, aye.
Now, you know that America has made super big history by electing the first African-American president in the over 200 years of American history. The US Embassy in Manila got caught in this whirlwind and came down to Cebu with its Deputy Chief of Mission Paul W. Jones and 30 embassy staff members and gave a select few a taste of American elections.
A nice reception presented the US Embassy personalities at the Marco Polo Hotel Tuesday night and an Election Watch at the Atrium of the new North Wing of SM last Wednesday. There was a mock voting to see who would be the locals’ choice for the highest post in America. And the popular vote went to Barrack Obama taking 66 percent and McCain 34 from a pool of 117 voters. How did this compare to the real thing? On the electoral votes, it was Obama 72 percent and McCain 28 percent.
My version on how Senator Obama won the US presidency? It is a modern day Wizard of Oz. You see, Obama’s mother is from Kansas and I guess she’s a friend of the Wizard of Oz, and so a historical black senator from Chicago, Hawaii or Indonesia became president, and that is the whole truth guys.
You know that there is still a lot of professional golf going on but it seems to most of us that the season is over. That is only because the US PGA is over but the European Tour just concluded their order of merit that Karlsson won to top the money list over Westwood. And the Asian Tour is still going strong. The problem with the European and Asian Tours is they are a very quiet bunch of guys and just do their swing and go on with it. Not much hullabaloo and ergo not much for the sportswriter, sportscasters and TV watchers to write, talk and speak about.
Hey, the Island Tee is already next Thursday and you can still sign up. There are many members still looking for partners so call up MIGC and maybe you can get a partner. Format is team of one member and one guest, two days to play and full handicap on Stableford points system. Limited time slots are left.
In my last column I was merely congratulating the winners of the October CCC monthly medal and right away I got a text from my good friend and fellow Rotarian Serge Romero who wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t playing with his usual flightmates Billy Tan and Gil Alvarez, who were the big class winners but was with Titing Gamallo, Emy Tesalona and Fred Agor.
And he didn’t get bumped to the seniors and it was only because he got a double bogey after a birdie on the 16th, that he got reclassified to win in the seniors, far and away from his bosom buddies Billy and Gil. They are the golf course equivalent of Bonnie and Clyde.
GOLF TIP. Improve your shots, get better ball contact, proper ball flight and direction by making sure that you’re swinging and standing square to the target throughout the whole swing. You will notice that many pros now have a preshot routine where they swing their clubs back and check where the club goes. They are checking if their swing is too upright/flat or if they are on the right plane.
For most of us it will be easier to have a guide rather than just looking where the club goes. The best way is to imagine that there’s a wall in front of you just a few inches on the other side of the ball. Set your shoulders, hips, feet and clubface square to the target and swing back making conscious that the clubhead will not touch the imaginary wall and you’re maintaining the same distance (not leaning away or toward) the wall on your swing. This will improve your balance and at the same time keep your body and clubhead square to the target the whole time.
