Friday, August 10, 2007 Garcia: Nice Golfing Weather By Imee Garcia
HELLO golfing buddies! Aren't you glad we have such wonderful weather here. In Manila, and other parts of Luzon, it is unfortunate that they experience typhoons. There are also times when parts of Visayas are affected by typhoons and heavy rains. But here in Davao, we have golfing weather all throughout the year.
I remember playing in the finals of the Samsung Philippine Amateur Golf tournament last year in Malarayat, Batangas. We had to play during a typhoon. I played terribly! How could I hit my shot well when the wind was trying to push me away. There were some players who sliced their shot and their ball landed two fairways away. There were times when I'd use my driver and my ball would land just a hundred feet away. It was crazy weather. I am so glad we don't have that kind of weather here.
Have you heard of a place called St. Moritz? It is a place in the mountains of Switzerland. It's a skiing destination for the elite, the high society, big time personalities, who's who, and European royalty. Would you believe, you can play golf there as well? They have snow golf available in the frozen lake where it's sunny 322 days in a year. I would use a colored ball if I decide to play there. Hehe. It wouldn't be fun to spend 95 percent of the time searching for your white golf ball.
In the Middle East, in Riyadh for example, there are courses where you had to play in sand in the desert. In most of these sandy golf courses, the balls they use are red, the greens and fairways are brown.
They use red colored balls because in the desert because the glare of the sun can be too much that you may not be able to locate a white ball from among the rocks and sand. The greens are brown or black because they are made of oil-treated sand. The fairways, brown as well and hard because of the oil that they spray over them to keep them compact and protect them from the wind.
And look at us...complaining about the grass we have. During the rainy season, some fairways get so muddy. We frown when we are instructed to keep our golf cars on the cart paths. Come dry season when there's not much rain, the fairways get so dry and crack up and we complain that our golf balls bounce erratically.
We should count our blessings. It's hard to maintain a golf course, and it can get quite expensive. Lucky for us these days, there are a lot of foreigners who come to play here, and that means more income for all the courses, and more income means, bigger budget for maintenance!
Well my friends, enjoy playing golf in Davao. Consider ourselves blessed! Our courses are close by, unlike in Manila. And we have such wonderful weather.
I would like to ask my friend, Paul Dakudao, who runs Lanang Golf & Country Club now, please please please, we beg you...we miss the turon! Even the local Koreans miss it. Please find a way to sell those again. Thanks in advance!
