AFTER a three-day respite, the Fil Am Golf Invitational will resume on Monday (Dec. 10) at its usual venues—Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay in the still lovable City of Pines.
This time, featured in the five-day event is the Men’s Regular, which is the premiere presentation of this world’s biggest and longest-running amateur golf tilt in history now on its 69th straight edition.
The just-ended seniors play for 55-year-olds and above saw Albert Garcia’s Mega Fiber prevail in a dramatic fashion over the highly-fancied Luisita squad of Jeric Hechanova, with hard-luck Southwoods of Primo Freddie Mendoza finishing third but not after the squad had bucked the disqualification of one of its mainstays for signing a wrong scorecard.
Still very much euphoric of their victory are Mega Fiber’s Rene Unson, Dave Hernandez, Jose Mari Hechanova, Rolly Viray, Abe Rosal and Bing Bunye, who played inspired golf despite the absence of their benefactor, Albert Garcia, who was in Australia for a pressing engagement.
A bit of drama attended the seniors play when a misdeclared score on a single hole caused a team to plummet down from No. 1 in the standings of the tournament robustly backed by San Miguel Corp. and Toyota.
A par was entered by the marker instead of a bogey. The player and marker both signed the scorecard before the player submitted it to the Committee.
But hours later, a player in the flight said, through a protest letter, that the player in question had made bogey and not par on said hole.
The team captain, an upright fellow and a Fil-Am fixture, promptly asked his player, “What did you make in that hole?”
“Bogey, sir,” the player replied.
“Sorry, sir, but you are disqualified,” the captain said. “We don’t deserve to win the championship.”
I salute the captain. He didn’t hide behind the 6 p.m. deadline set for filing a protest after a stipulated round for the day, which was what really happened when the issue was raised.
Now, who said the Fil-Am, if not the game itself, is lacking in upright men?
Surely, the captain showed faithful adherence to the laws of golf.
He wants to be anonymous.
Once more, pop the cork for honesty.