SGC welcomes back to the fold Pat DeOca, Lina Mayo, and Para Tuy. All three showed up and played in the GTA tournament a week ago. Ditto with Jun Paculaba & Ron Protacio who were away for a little while for personal reasons. Glad seeing them back. SGC wonders about Fred Halili, Don Nelson & Manny Chea for missing quite a few events and we hope to see them playing regularly. We are aware of MIA players that are having health issues – Sam Kim, Nap Pascual, Rene Querubin, and Ricky Reyes. We hope for your immediate recovery and to see you all able and joining us again. Cheers.

Phenomenal weather was in store all week according to the weather forecast. Seasonable high temperatures at right around twenty-two degrees Celsius last Sunday at Glen Cedars golf course accompanied by sunshine and barely a breath of wind. Was mother nature giving us the summer treatment that we were supposed to have? Not so fast. We were interrupted by thunder and lightning in the middle of our round and was told by the golf course management to take shelter at the club house for safety reasons. We were thinking, “Oh no, here we are again. Inclement weather greeting us with another horrid golf conditions.”  But once we reached the club house, it did not take long for the twenty-three players to get back to the course after huddling together for about fifteen minutes. It was a clear blue sky right to the end of our round. What a relief.

Momentous day it was at Glen Cedars. Why? It was the end of the month. So much staging of prizes to be had. With all the perks going with it, were the high anxiety of players thinking of what prize should they take home. Well, it was easy to be seduced by these contests, frustrations could come over you very fast if you went empty handed. If you would think you could not lose them all, try & try again. Again, ‘rub of the green’ so they said in golf. So much for the hoopla. Let us proceed with the contingency of winners. Almost everyone knew that this soft-spoken guy would rise from time to time and became a spoiler when you never expected. Paolo Ballares who was tagged by everybody as the ‘Silent killer’ did win more than one prize. By posting a net round score of 68, Paolo took home the day’s prize as well as the top coveted Super Series 2 prize. He did not stop there; he also claimed the Nassau back and lowest net total score.

Erlandro Ibañez shared the Nassau front with Jojo Dizon. Worthwhile mentioning was the other low net score of one of only two players in the high 60s – Manny Marquez carded a net score of 69.

 

 

 

 

 

Adding to the colourful and eventful day was the performance of another member who happened to play minimal number of events with us because of church commitment on Sundays – Ross Bautista as luck and skill would have it shot an amazing hole-in-one at the par 3 hole 5. What a feat.

 

Month 2 contest: Jimmy Manguerra was a runaway winner with lowest aggregate three-week net score of 210.

 

Closest to the pin contest: This guy seemed to win on a weekly basis as he treated every week as another day at the office – Julio Rodriguez shot the closest on hole number 3 while the ever forever young Mar DeVeyra won the 16^th hole.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to the winners. Appreciate the round of drinks provided by Paolo B.

Announcement: SGC should decide soon whether to join GTA Interleague tournament next year…….or not.

Correct me if I was wrong – the SGC’s membership support for this year’s GTA Interleague tournament was obviously waning by a great number. Only nineteen members committed and played. For whatever reasons, SGC needed a total commitment from almost all members to get this going again.

If you ask me, let us set aside for now playing for fun for this event. If you still have pride competing and winning this event, it all relies on numbers. The chance of winning the holy grail depends mostly on the number of player’s participation. You get higher percentage of carding lower scores when you get more people playing. Good example is the eventual winner this year, Talamak. They came in droves to play. I was not saying they were better than anybody else but I could sense their sense of motivation. Had you notice their hats, shirts, and even golf bags were in unison?

This was a disastrous showing, attendance wise by members. SGC appreciated the effort of those members participated. They really tried but remember the percentage I mentioned above? Now I heard rumour swirling that a few of those who played last Saturday were thinking of discontinuing their support. If this was the case, let’s absolve all together joining next year’s GTA.

Let’s talk.

SGC’s week 9 in numbers at 2017 Remington Parkview’s GTA Interleague tournament: Although we did not do well as a team collectively, there were few members who had encouraging finish. To name a few – Jimmy Manguerra, Joey Cruz, Ron Wilson, Lina Mayo, & Rey Plaza. SGC had 893 points losing 44 points to the eventual champion Talamak. SGC finished dead last. Here is the GTA Interleague Final Scores.

Your comment?

Here are local rules as released by Talamak organization. Help yourself to a copy and bring it to the golf course for this Saturday.

Ball hitting wire or hydro tower is out of play.  AUTOMATIC RE-HIT.

Line of sight relief from all hydro towers is 20 yards (closest point of relief).

All other hazards are marked with red and white stakes.

1)            Holes 3, 4, 5 left side of the road is OB (painted white)

2)            Hole 3 right side is in bound (not OB)

3)            Holes 6, 7, 8, 9 left side (fescue) are lateral hazard

4)            Hole 9 right side is OB

5)            Holes 15, 16 left side is boundary fence and is OB

6)            Holes 17, 18 left side are lateral hazards

Shocking. Yes, it was a shocking Sunday at Westview golf course. We finally had that kind of sunny golfing weather after seven straight weeks of gloom. With temperature of thirty-two degree Celsius and amplified humidity, we got a relief from brisk winds blowing across the golf course every now and then. But I’d tell you what, the players were stunned to get this kind of weather for the first time in this  summer’s young tournament. Most of the twenty players who showed up barely handled the heat and humidity as the day wore on. Get used to it I supposed. Would you rather have a rainy cold weather? Adding to our desolation of having tee balls that spent more time in the fairway trees than an arborist, this quirky-cool golf course returned the favor by biting our you knew what. Should we mention that the golf course management mishandled the situation by running short of golf carts? We believed we should. Was it a case of over booking they got the idea from Delta airlines or an impromptu of malfunctioning carts that brought the chaos within our club? At least we had the acknowledgement as well as an apology from the owner himself afterwards. Hmmmmm…….

No matter what kind of weather mother nature presented us, who would be the last man standing? When you were having one of those days, fighting for pars and smart bogeys were imperative, it helped build character.  We could also say it was also part of becoming a real player. Regardless what happened, we had been there before. We could draw on some great practices where it was not like this was brand new ground where the signs were not there. I’ve had a front row seat playing with this member last Sunday in a foursome. Julio Rodriguez showed the composure of a veteran shooting a hard-earned net of 72. Numbers alone didn’t paint the full picture but scoring low with this kind of weather environment was almost intolerable. Julio’s Sunday’s win represented a continuation of some excellent early season form. Quashing the competition, he got the day’s prize as well as the Nassau corner sweep only to be tied with the cool and mild-mannered Mar DeVeyra at the front nine. Julio showed he could be around on some more Sunday’s in the future.

 

 

 

 

Par 3 contest: A hard hitting Jess Velardo got Middle course’s seventh while the ever competitive Sennix Bontigao fired the closest at Lakeland’s fourth.

 

 

 

 

Food for thought: A good organization in the face of disgruntlement among members will have its uphill climb achieving relaxed and heaven like atmosphere. Members ought to ask themselves, “Can’t we get along?”

ANNOUNCEMENT: GTA tournament is this SATURDAY, June 17^th. Please come early – 9:30 AM to register; SHOTGUN START AT 11:00 AM SHARP. Words of caution – since the holes for this golf venue are very close to each other, please be mindful of other golf balls flying toward your direction!!!!  Play safely. To members who are representing SGC this year, good luck to you all, have fun. Be proud, we are defending champs.

Threat of rain a few days prior got some of the players thinking twice before committing to play last Sunday at Glen Cedars. Well, sorry to say but for those who showed up to brave the forecast of rain throughout the day with fear of an abbreviated round of golf because of that unnerving weather forecast, were surprised by cloudy mild twenty-two-degree Celsius temperature with no sun smiling at us. Rain almost never happened but only a dash of shower that did not last long. A little humid but as a matter of fact, almost perfect playing conditions with a little bit on the cool side plus the wind stayed calm. I could hear most of the thirteen players who showed up whispering “This is a perfect number of people playing, not much competition and less people to beat.”  We had seen deficient weather conditions for the past four weeks now but this Sunday was a sanctification, a trifling weather temperature for our very own enjoyment. In unison, we could still say “Is summer coming at all?”

I think this was the day where we welcomed our three new members – Erlando Ibañez, Ron Protacio, & Jess Velardo. We weren’t sure enough if these newcomers would continue their new trek of happy experience with SGC for sure but now we knew. Welcome gentlemen.

Round seven it was, hitching to seventh week of our tourney with one round cancelled, eighteen more rounds unaccounted for. The way the inclement weather was trending toward every Sunday, we might see another cancelation. We hoped not. Anyway, SGC was a little bit more euphoric for who did what at the recent game. It was inspiring to see a surprised winner. Conforming a mystique aura in which he carried with him for two years now, Ron Wilson who showed up for his first game of the year finally connected last Sunday ending a dry run in as many years. Nobody covered the beat better than easy going Ron who carded a convincingly net score of twenty-nine at the Nassau back nine. Adding to his winning for that day was his best shot at the sixteenth par 3 hole garnering him one of the two of the closest to the pin prizes. Was he elated? Why of course he was….. silly. Erlan Ibañez fired the closest at the other par 3 hole third. Other Nassau corner winners were Bert Cerrudo, Joey Cruz who had the most consistent showing of good play so far, & Rey Plaza. All three players carded the same net score of 33 at the front nine with the former winning the total net score as well as the day’s prize.

 

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, we had a wonderful time. So, for those notable absentees, hope to see you next week. A beautiful sunny 29 degrees Celsius on Sunday is forecasted.