Friday, May 25, 2007 Golf: Enjoy the moment while it lasts By Imee Garcia
HERE in Davao, we are blessed with having four golf courses. For the past several years, I have noticed that there are less and less local golfers playing in all the four courses. I do not know what the reason is behind this. It could be because some players have other priorities in mind. They don’t have time to play anymore. They’ve shifted to a different sport.
Another reason could be--that the sport is getting more costly. Another reason could be--that they have more kids to take care of, and more time has to be spent with the family.
We used to have a lot of tournaments scheduled every year. The participants—almost always, there are more than two hundred. Now, we have very much less participants.
I feel bad about the caddies and the umbrella girls. Some do not have any income for the day. Some of them wake up early and wait at the course the whole day, hoping they get their turn to caddy so that they have money to bring back to the family. Many of them go home empty handed.
Luckily, very recently, there has been an influx of Koreans coming to Davao for golf. They’ve been filling up the courses, and thus, giving income to the caddies and umbrella girls. The owners and the management of the courses are happy, or course—more income for everyone.
In the months to come, we are expecting more foreigners to arrive in Davao, mostly Koreans.
Why the sad face? Well, usually, when we decide to play, we don’t need a reservation. No need to call the golf course to reserve for a tee time. We simply walk in, go to the first hole and tee off. If there is a group waiting, we tee off in the back nine. If hole no. 1 and 10 have waiting groups, we jump to hole number 6 (in Lanang’s case) or another hole that’s empty.
We are so spoiled. We can play fivesomes, and we can even play sixsomes. We can use plenty of mulligans in any hole, in any golf course. We can even finish a game in three hours.
But if the trend continues, and we get more and more foreigners coming to Davao for golf, we will not have that privilege anymore. Pretty soon, we might have to reserve a tee time. No more sixsomes. No more best ball sixsomes. No more speedy 3-hour games. No more jumping to empty holes.
So now, my fellow local golfers…. Enjoy the moment while it lasts because maybe, in the months to come, the courses will often be crowded.
