It was decided that the conclusion of the Senior POY contest slated on September 29, 2013 to be extended one more round to October 6, 2013 at Ballantrae golf course. Suggested by our prez, Joey Cruz to have it extended a game in lieu of the cancelled round at Royal Woodbine on July 7, 2013. It was presented, approved by the seven senior members who showed up at last Sunday’s round at Kingsforest.

An invitation also was offered to all SGC members coming from a good hearted member, Pat Deoca to have his annual dinner at his place right after Royal Ontario’s round of golf on August 11, 2013. Pat D. as announced earlier, committed as well to donating two “green jackets” for the winners of this year’s regular & Senior POY. Fact or fiction? Did we hear from reliable source that Pat made a personal donation worth over $1000 of golf clubs to the golf fundraising event by FCT (Filipino Centre Toronto) two weeks ago? This is all facts folks. FCT was glad to confirm it and claimed that Pat had been a sponsor ever since the charitable FCT’s golf tournament started.  SGC proudly appreciates Pat’s charitable endeavor beyond our club’s reign of influence.

ROUND: Another perfect day around Hamilton peninsula for last Sunday’s round at Kingsforest golf course. Twenty-nine players including three guests enjoyed the weather as well as round of drinks after the round. Hopefully with good weather in the offing for the coming weeks we have got to see these players soon – Brian B., Seb DM., Bong M., Dave N., and Rey P.  We hope and wish that they may not be MIA too long.

NASSAU: A familiar face in the winning circle – Paolo B. won again taking the front nine. Bingoy P. tied Bert C. who won the overall, for the back nine.

MONTH 3 WINNERS: Ed I. who took second place in the very first month’s contest took the honours this time with total net scores of 214. Lina M. & Bingoy P. with 216 tied for second place.

POY: Jimmy M. still leads with total twelve best net scores of 889. Ed I. with a good showing last Sunday jumped from fourth place to second place with 896. Seho O. remained steady in third place with 897. Manny C. who was idle escalated down to fourth place with 898 followed by Jojo D. with 929.

SENIOR POY: No change so far after seven rounds with Seho O. leading the pack with total net scores of 524. The fierce battle is in second place. Mar DV. with 531 leads Exe N. by slimmest of margin of one stroke. Everybody else is in distant place with ten rounds still to account for.

Congratulations to the winners!

Weather wise last Sunday, no complaints. It was a perfect afternoon – not so hot, not so cold. Wind was not a factor either. No excuses this time for the twenty-three players plus one guest to enjoy Maples of Ballantrae golf course and expect a low scoring affair as everybody teed off from the white tees. We heard rumbling from other members that it should had been blue and white tees. People keep forgetting that it is stated in one of our local rules that yardage over 6500 for blue tees we all play from the whites. MoB scorecard exhibited 6625 total yards. Please understand that the ruling took effect this year contrary to other members uttering that we played blue and white tees the previous year. Unfortunately few members do not seem to heed SGC’s ever changing local  rules resulting to confusion and tactless finger pointing.

ROUND: Good weather, good scoring for most people. Two players – Don D. continued with his solid play and Manny M. took advantage of the nice weather while both men carding the lowest net scores of 67. Jimmy M. demonstrating that he may not beat players because of his low handicap, found other way to reward himself by shooting an eagle on the fifteenth hole.

NASSAU: Three players came out winning the front – Levi M., Manny M., & Seho O. Don D. who took solo back nine tied Manny M. for the lowest overall score.

RACE to MONTH 3: With one round to go, Lina M. in excellent form, played two good rounds sits atop the leaderboard with total net of 136 followed by JC M. with 140. Bingoy P. came alive in third with 144.

POY: Same standings for the top five as nobody lost position since last week. Jimmy M. still leads by two with total twelve net scores of 896 over Manny C. Seho O., Ed I., and Jojo D. placed third, fourth, and fifth respectively. If your total net scores for four or five rounds still hugging around with the leaders, you are assured of being in the position to contend with lots of games left.

SENIOR POY: No ties this time at the very top as Seho O. took the sole lead position with total six low net scores of 450. Mar DV. dropped down to second place with 454 followed by Exe N. with 459 in third place. With still ten games to go, this is still anybody’s title to claim.

As usual winners pampered those who stayed with rounds of drinks. Thanks to Seho for bringing those sweet lychees and large sugar tasting cherries. Bingoy P. provided some peanuts. Also thanks to Sam K. for the delicious cookies.

Congratulations to the winners!

Last Sunday’s forecast was for more sunshine, so much sunshine that the heat was a little overwhelming at Royal Ontario. Could had been ideal for pretty pictures on television if we were under the lights. Kidding aside almost all of the twenty-eight players and two guests enjoyed playing with the heat. Not to mention the irritating blood sucking mosquitoes.

Round: She came, she conquered, and then vanished into thin air after the round. Listen folks. If Lina M. would just play regularly, she would put all of us boys looking for a greener pasture somewhere else. She signed a round of net 65 then left the course immediately before the boys could sing their praises to her.

Closest to the pin contest: Mike M. took care of the front 8^th hole convincingly. PJ P. who was having a very lousy day scoring, rewarded himself by getting closest to the 11^th hole that put a smile on his face afterwards.

Nassau: JC M. had the lowest round of the day for those who participated in the corners contest. He took the back and overall with a net of 69. Three people – Jimmy M., Julio R., & Exe N. tied for the front.

POY: Jimmy M. wrestled back the lead by two from Manny C with 821 total eleven net scores. Sixteen points behind in third place is Seho O. three points followed closely by Ed I. In solo fifth is Jojo D.

Senior POY: It looks like these two people – Seho O. & Mar DV are the only ones interested in grabbing this maiden contest. Nobody else is making a significant move to catch up with these two. After five contested rounds, Seho & Mar are tied again at the top with total points of 380. A not so distant third is Exe N. with 389 followed by Bong M. with 390.

Drinks to everyone and some fries after the round courtesy of the winners.

Congratulations!

Due to torrential rain the entire golf course was deemed unplayable last Sunday. H2O was everywhere where most of the affected areas were the greens making it impossible to make putts. Usually cancelled rounds due to inclement weather, most golf courses grant their clients rain checks to be used for the next round they play. This depends on what hole your position of play at the point of interruption. The lesser hole you played, you get more corresponding free holes credited to you for your next round which is good for one year.

A funny thing happened while SGC played its round yesterday. It was a big member turnout even with the looming rain forecast. One member of the first flight got stuck with his cart in mud and water that he unluckily could not get out of. Finally when the weather got so bad that even those die hard golfers could no longer take, all of us gave up and headed for the club house. After confirming with the club house that the course was unusable we were all granted rain checks…..except for one member. He was obviously still stuck alone out there on the 9th hole still dripping wet. As a final point, he finally got rescued after an hour by the course staff as we were all getting worried for his safety.

We all gathered around him when he reached the club house to see how he was doing. He was told by a few members to get his rain check. He was asked by the staff what hole he was on prior to the round stoppage.

He smartly said and I quote, “I was playing the 6^th hole”.

ROUND: Two opposing players with dissimilar style – Mar DV. and Levi M., the former a veteran with finesse while the latter a power hitting machine, both showed grit by scoring the lowest net of 65. Paulo B. an upcoming soft-spoken young lad who shot net 65 as well, propelled him to a three-way tie with the aforementioned two gents. Manny C. with red-hot play of late scorned hole par 4 sixth with an eagle then carded net 68.

Two par three holes – closest to the pin were contested. Bong M. insisted on running this contest again in which almost everyone who showed up obliged to participate. Experts say golf is about getting yourself chances, and that was what Lina M. did by sharp-shooting the designated hole four that none of the boys could beat. A new member, Rene Q. who is making noise with his superb quality display of decent rounds recently, won the back hole tenth.

Nassau winners: Same three players won with overall net score of 65 – Paulo B., Mar DV., & Levi M. The front nine was grabbed by Paulo while the back nine went to Levi & Mar.

POY: No ties in the top six positions with ten total net scores accounted for this time folks. Manny C. at the very top with 741 leading Jimmy M. by a fat seven strokes. Seho O. came third with 762 followed by Ed I. with 768. Jojo D. with 779 and Fred H. with 818 checked in fifth and sixth place respectively. The way to look at it with fifteen more games to go, you still have fifteen chances to catch up with the leaders by scoring low. Not an easy feat? Climbing to the top of the CN Tower using the stairs is not easy.

Senior POY: A deserving lead for Mar DV who performed superbly last Sunday with total net four round scores of 301 displacing last week’s co-leader Seho who took second place with 303. Bong M. climbed up the charts in third place with 310. Surprisingly, one of the co-leaders from last week Exe N. unwillingly dropped down to fourth with 313. They are still bunched closely together with thirteen more games to go. Even Joey C. who just entered the contest still not out of the running for the roses, so he said. True.

Players who stayed a little longer after the round concluded were treated to round of drinks, fries and chicken wings by the Sunday winners including Manny C. Saed J. contributed a pitcher of refreshing cold beer too. As usual, Seho’s hospitality was on display again by offering fresh cherries, chips, cookies and peanuts after the game.

Thanks to the winners and congratulations!

Being forewarned is being foretold. SGC members were informed by its prez, Joey C. at the end of the golf season last year that he was planning a much needed extended vacation this year in the coming spring and early summer months affecting the start of our golf season without a leader for a little bit over two months. That drove the club into uncertainty as what was in the offing and who was going to lead the club? Well what do you know? Ten long weeks into our summer golf season someone proved that winning off the golf course could be done with affluence. The emergence of this person who showed us that this volunteered job was not easy task at all but found self-imposed challenge by surprising himself doing the job with flying colours. He said “I’m only doing this because I’d like to compete with this year’s GTAA Interleague”. To his amazement, taking the job as SGC’s interim president while our current prez is AWOL, faced him with unforeseen responsibilities that got him busier than his normal schedule would take him. Somewhere somehow it resided along the line of ‘big shoes to fill’ syndrome. Giving it all to deliver distinctive services to SGC membership for their comfort and enjoyment was a bit tedious but satisfying. “Sometimes my day job gets in the way” he jokingly said. SGC in behalf of its members, would like to thank Mike Montilla for a job well done! Surely he will relish the experience. No doubt members appreciate his unselfish contribution as well as understand his efforts, do we not folks?  Hats off also to members who provided Mike M. with their undying support. This is just an example of people who are willing to sacrifice their own time and effort to get our club moving ahead and enjoy our summer pastime.

We welcome back in one whole piece and into the fold once more after a long, long break our prez, Joey C.