Friday, December 08, 2006 Garcia: Playing golf with Reming By Imee Garcia
IMAGINE heavy rains and strong winds, gustiness of up to 185 kph, heavy mudflows, rooftops of houses being blown away--devastation beyond our imagination--people stay home to avoid the fury of a super typhoon, but not us.
We got up, got dressed, and headed to Malarayat Golf and Country Club in Lipa, Batangas -- home of Mayor Vilma Santos. That is the venue for this year's Samsung Philippine Amateur Finals. Despite the super typhoon, we still had to compete for the best of the best, the cream of the crop -- the tournament of champions.
The tournament started fine. The course was difficult, lots of sand traps on the fairways, and the greens were very hard to read, plus add swirling wind-suit was very challenging. Despite that, I still managed to lead in the Class B Ladies' Division on the first 9 holes. At the back nine, had a few mistakes, then, all of a sudden, Super Typhoon Reming came. I got wet from the rains, and when strong winds came rushing in, I had chills down my spine. It got so cold and, with the wind going crazy, I could not hit the ball properly.
The wind was carrying my ball everywhere except the fairways and the greens. All I could think of was that it wasn't my day and I just wanted to get it over with. What a disaster! However, I don't feel that bad because everyone had a bad day. One of the favorites to win, a Korean, Ms. Lee, played even worse than me on the first day.
That night, back at the hotel, we could feel the fury of Typhoon Reming. There was no electricity until morning. Good thing the hotel had a generator, but no air-conditioning. We could hear the sound of the furious wind blowing away everything in its path and heavy rains hitting the glass windows. All I could think of was the fate of our less fortunate fellowmen bracing themselves for the devastation that may soon follow.
The next day, the typhoon got even worse. We all thought the tournament was cancelled for sure. It was signal no. 3. But, we were advised to get ready and head out to the golf course. The tournament was delayed for an hour because of the clean up. We went to the driving range to hit some balls. The wind was so strong that if you targeted straight, your ball would land 60 yards or more to the right. I would hit my driver and on the follow-through, I'd get off balanced because the wind would push me forward. In times like this, being fat or being heavy becomes an advantage. If only I could tie some heavy bricks on my feet to keep me steady all throughout the swing. Ninot Galicia and I were sharing our experience on the greens. The greens were so tough to read. It was even tougher that day because we could not even stand still while trying to concentrate on making the putt. The wind was pushing us in different directions.
Congratulations to Ronald "Ninot" Galicia for winning the men's Class B title. Chihiro "Chichang" Ikeda played very well, but wasn't able to make it in the ladies' Class A division. But, she managed to have the lowest gross score on the second day, beating the heavyweights such as Carmelette Villaroman, Crystal Superal and Regine de Guzman. Elindo Lo also played well, unfortunately he fell a little short as well.
I was telling myself and others how silly it was to play golf during a super typhoon. But the show must go on, and Reming was there to make sure we had a tough time.
