Thursday, January 15, 2009 Pages: LJ Go, only 13, scores golf’s rare hole-in-one By John Pages Match Point
THE Mizuno-Asia Miles Sinulog Half-Marathon, open to 5K and 21K runners, sprints off this Jan. 17. To all interested, register today! Final registration area is at the Sug-Angan Restaurant (fronting Hi-Precision Diagnostics) along J. Llorente St. See you at the starting line in two days!
GOLF. Thanks to Atty. Jovi Neri, one of Cebu’s top golfers and the chieftain of the Cebu Country Club JunGolf program, I received stunning news. From the website that Jovi created, http://cccjungolf.multiply.com, here are the juicy details of a phenomenal feat...
“Barely a week after he was selected to play for the Cebu Country Club Men’s Regular Team in the PAL Interclub, Lloyd Jefferson Go wasted little time making the captain comfortable with his choice. On Jan. 11, LJ hit one of the most elusive shots in golf—a hole-in-one—on the par-3 15th that was playing close to 160 yards. It was a perfect shot that never left the flag, and slowly rolled into the cup after landing softly on the green...”
“The witnesses were former jungolfers Toby Florendo, Macky Michael, San Remegio Vice Mayor Nińo Bascon, and Neri. LJ’s dad Charlie was also there...
“At 13 years old and 343 days, LJ’s flightmate Macky theorized that LJ may be the youngest player ever to ace a par 3 in CCC from the members’ tees. This may be true although there are no records to prove or disprove it. Other jungolfers in the past such as Bigjan or even LJ’s sister LK have scored aces at younger ages but not from the members’ tees.”
“Ever since CCC Team Captain Montito Garcia requested jungolfers to submit their statistics last July in order to find a jungolfer who could be groomed to play the PAL Interclub, LJ has responded to the challenge. Not only has he had the lowest scoring average, he is the only one left who has religiously submitted his scores.”
“From July to September, LJ’s scoring average was 79.33. However, he picked it up starting October, as he has averaged 76.42 over the last three months of the year... well inside the top 10 players for CCC. His putting has also improved, from 30.44 over the first three months to 27.83 from October to December. Through these six months, he’s hit a whopping 87.8 percent of his fairways. Another impressive stat is that he only played two games from the blue tees over the first three months, but had five blue tee games over the last three months including a game where he beat seven-time club champion Garcia.”
“While his scoring has been consistent, it’s his tournament performance that merits recognition. He shot rounds of 73-71 during the Corn Tee in Club Filipino, and 75-75-80 in the Alta Vista Jungolf Challenge. He had disaster holes in the final day of Alta Vista, but under the Stableford system used in the PAL Interclub, it would still have been 33-33-32.”
“In December, he shot a first round 72 in the Nike Southern Junior Classic—his lowest tournament round ever. Ever since 2003 when records were kept, no jungolfer has shot even par or better from the white tees at age 13 in a tournament. LJ has also consistently scored in the 70s in Men’s Monthly Medals. This summer, he almost scored a major upset against Neri in the first round of the Club Championship, coming back from three down with three to play to force sudden death.”
“LJ’s ace puts him in the company of CCC junior golfers who have scored aces under current chairman Neri’s administration since 2003: Bigjan Ybańez, Kento Nakada, LK Go, Hannah Wong, Kathleen Uy and Abby Olea. His club on the 15th, which was an 8-iron, is probably one of the shortest clubs ever used to ace the hole from those tees.”
On a personal note: I bumped into Macky Michael late yesterday and found out even more astonishing news. Several years back, LJ’s sister, LK, also shot a hole-in-one. But that’s not it. She shot two holes-in-one. And, believe it or not, that’s not all of it: She shot two holes-in-one in a single round (nine holes) of golf!
