In the cooler side of temps at eighteen degrees Celsius, it was an ideal atmosphere to play golf for twenty-two players at the twenty-first round of the summer season. Four more rounds to go and we all go on separate ways for the old man winter. SGC is conducting this Sunday a list of banquet night attendees to be held on a Saturday, October 12, 2019. We recommend to all to attend this gala at no cost to you with your preferred partner to enjoy and harness the award festivities.

One of the feel-good stories happened last Sunday. Early part of the 2019 season had been a bit disjointed season when the results had been few and far between for this member. After a quick turnaround seeking redemption by breaking through with his first day win, Manny Marquez finishing hard earned shot better than two others with a net score of 67 at Glen Cedars. Although he outgunned everybody in the field by claiming the Nassau total net as well, Manny was saying after the round not much of himself, but he was more of paying complimentary acclaims to other members of his group. How about that display of humility and modesty? I salute you, Sir! Keep it contagious for the rest of us.

Other Nassau corner winners: Rey Macapagal, Manny Marquez & JC Montilla, capped off a front-nine 32 net score to land a three-way tie while another share on the back nine was captivated by ‘Mr. Original’ Mar DeVeyra & the go for broke Jess Velarde with a praiseworthy net score of 33.

From L to R: Rey Macapagal, Manny Marquez, JC Montilla, Mar DeVeyra, Jess Velarde

Closest to the pin contest: The ever-quiet Jun Paculaba fired a precise shot on the par 3 5^th hole and almost beat out Jess Velarde on the 16^th hole. Jess ten-footer shot to the pin never got contested by other players.

From L to R: Jun Paculaba, Jess Velarde

Major contest updates: Dave Nelson appears to be the runaway favorite to win the POY contest. He continues to lead for three weeks in a row now by 11 strokes with only four games to go over his closest pursuers Exe Navarette and Julio Rodriguez. Seho Oh sits 2 strokes clear of Exe Navarette in the SPOY race. Steve Kim who was an absentee last week, may claim the title of MIP if the season ends now. He still sits atop the MIP atop the leader board over Julio Rodriguez by 0.0284 points.

From L to R: Dave Nelson, Seho Oh, Steve KIm

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to circumstance we could not control, round 25 at Kaneff’s Masters golf course on October the 6^th was cancelled and replaced by Lakeridge golf course. For more details please check SGC Schedule posted on the website.

At twenty-two degrees Celsius with slimmest of shower falling in the middle of the round, twenty-five players were aspiring for a good round of golf for it was the end of the month at Kingsforest golf course last Sunday. Temperature at this time of year reminds us that September is here expect cooler temps plus the daylight gets shorter and shorter. Well, as the saying goes – “Time flies when you’re having fun”. Five more weeks of playing golf and our summer pastime will be over. We worry about that later and in the meantime enjoy whatever we can.

When you are lackadaisical, the golf game is cruel. Dave Nelson was not thinking about that. He made sure that he was spot on with his game because plenty of prizes at stake riding on a single game. For most players, it was a deciding factor to make or break. Dave Nelson did make it, convincingly signing a scorecard with a net score of 69. Let’s see what a net score of 69 could do. He topped four others for the best four finishers to win Super Series 4 contest. That was two in a row for him as he also won Super Series 3 a month ago. A week before last, Dave with a net score of 70 for third place was one of five players expecting to win the Grand Finals. While others fizzled and with that virtuoso net-69 performance last Sunday at Kingsforest, he accumulated an aggregate score of 139 to capture the Grand Finals championship. With no one else matching his sparkling performance for the day, Dave won the day prize as well. Surprisingly enough this was the first time he won the day prize. Let me see, he won the day prize, Super Series 4, & the Grand Finals. Not bad take for a day, was it?

In the Nassau corners department, Seho Oh captured the front nine with a net score of 33 while the back nine going to Rey Macapagal with a net score of 32. Nassau total net score of 70 was shared by Ross Bautista and Julio Rodriguez.

From L to R: Seho Oh, Rey Macapagal, Ross Bautista, Julio Rodriguez

Major contest updates: Dave Nelson still leads the POY race for the second week with smashing ten strokes over the second placer Joey Cruz. Seho Oh became a solo leader in the POY contest after last Sunday over Joey Cruz by meager three strokes. A new leader emerged after Steve Kim just registered his fifteenth game of the season. Steve leads Jun Paculaba by a whopping 0.0461 points.

Fro L to R: Dave Nelson, Seho Oh, Steve Kim

Closest to the pin contest: Steve Kim was one of only two players that made it to the par 3 seventh hole green but his shot was closer than Exe Navarette’s. Jojo Dizon’s shot on the par 3 fourteenth hole awarded himself the prize for his effort.

From L to R: Steve Kim, Jojo Dizon

Month 4 Contest: Even without playing for the last two rounds of the month, nobody but nobody could still get passed the best three net scores of 201 recorded earlier in the month by Manny Chea. He won by three strokes over his closest pursuer, Steve Kim. By the way, the record was set by Bingoy Peña a year ago with aggregate score of 198.

ANNOUNCEMENT: For those playing next Sunday at Glen Cedars, tee off time is at 1:40 o’clock PM.

Moving on. How about this, two renaissance senior members who got it together capped off their rounds with Nassau corners front-nine net 32 and total net 68 scores. The unflappable “I’m still here guys” Sennix Bontigao and master tactician Exe Navarette both shared that identical net scores to win those two Nassau corners and the day prize as well. This was a second day prize crown for Exe Navarette making him the seventh multiple winner for the year. Sennix Bontigao on the other hand, gave a performance of his life on a challenging golf course capturing his first win of the year.

Other Nassau corner winners: This was the first time ever to happen as five players with a coincidental net of 36 shared the back nine win: Sennix Bontigao, Mar DeVeyra, Exe Navarette, Seho Oh, & Julio Rodriguez. Wasn’t that remarkable how it played out? Whether you like it or not, both Sennix & Exe swept all Nassau corners. 

From L to R: Sennix Bontigao, Mar DeVeyra, Exe Navarette, Seho Oh, Julio Rodriguez

Accuracy shot department: The smooth swinging Dave Nelson got it closest than anybody else on the par 3 eight hole while Jimmy Manguerra couldn’t be satisfied without winning anything going home captured the eleventh hole.

From L to R: Dave Nelson, Jimmy Manguerra

After last Sunday’s nineteenth round, here are the top five favorite candidates to win next Sunday’s Grand Finals:

Sennix Bontigao (68)

Exe Navarette (68)

Dave Nelson (70)

Ray Macapagal (72)

Seho Oh (72).

For complete results please refer to  Round 16 to 20.

Major contest updates: We have a new leader in the POY contest. Dave Nelson climbed up the leaderboard upon reaching fifteen games and now leads last week’s leader Joey Cruz by two meager strokes. Seho Oh now co-leads Joey Cruz in the SPOY contest. In the MIP race, a new leader also showed up. Jun Paculaba entering his fifteenth game of the season to qualify, leads Exe Navarette by 0.0016 points while last week’s leader Joey Cruz fell back to sixth. Now I could see how flaky this game of golf was after only a week Joey lost all the lead except SPOY in which he co-leads. Manny Chea still holds a three-shot advantage heading into the final round of the Month 4 race next week over Steve Kim.

From L to R: Dave Nelson, Joey Cruz, Seho Oh, Jun Paculaba, Manny Chea

Food for thought: One member of ours let his promising daughter more than once to play with us this year. It is a breath of fresh air scene to watch as father and daughter who are both soft spoken demonstrating they can also play golf. Hopefully, SGC can entice more women golfers to our league and the entire GTA Interleague event for a start. It needs a lot of labor of thoughtful interest among members and real commitment to support the idea. SGC sees no gender restriction if an individual has a passion for the game of golf at all. At any rate regarding a co-ed related golf sport, we welcome SGC’s lone female member, Lina Mayo who just came back for her first game after a shoulder injury. Nice to see her playing again then she’s off again for a 14-day vacay. Enjoy.

Congratulations to the winners. Wish you good luck to Month 4, Grand Finals, & Super Series 4 contests next week.

Twenty-nine degrees Celsius at BraeBen golf  course last Sunday which started promisingly good weather wise at tee off time for twenty-seven players. It did not last long enough as we got to the back nine. The clouds became darker and darker and the rain came pouring down. Our round was halted close to two hours by rainstorm accompanied by threat of lightning. Nobody wished the round would be cancelled due to inclement weather, but play resumed soon after. Four players did not bother going back to the course to finish their game, everyone else completed their respective rounds with lingering wet feeling as there was drizzle still coming down. Although it got better when the sun came out again later, it was grudgingly a little late for the latter groups playing.

Raining or not, someone had to excel to play the round regardless. Low and behold, Manny Chea not only showed up but nonchalantly played a marvelous round that propelled him to a spectacular gross score of three under 69. How about them apples? This is the Manny we used to know. Anyway, how did you think his net score would be? Forget about it – no one came close and because of that score, Manny grabbed the day prize. The slightly soaked eighteenth hole surrendered an eagle score to Manny himself discreetly finishing his super round. As far as Month 4 contest is concerned, he leads this one as well over the second placer, Steve Kim by three strokes. More of Manny later this page.

Nassau winners: A pedestrian, quiet performance by Julio Rodriguez was good enough to beat everyone else for the Nassau front nine and total net with net 32 and 66 scores respectively. Jess Velarde who brought with him a delicious ‘sisig putahe’ remarkably seized the back nine with net score of 31.

From L to R: Julio Rodriguez, Jess Velarde

Par 3 closest to the pin contest: More of Manny Chea as promised. He rifled a perfect shot on the seventh par 3 hole to win it. Jojo Dizon bragged about his shot that got the closest on the hundred and fifty yard-thirteenth hole.

From L to R: Manny Chea, Jojo Dizon

Major contest updates: The ever-steady Joey Cruz still leads all three – MIP, POY, & SPOY. With only five players getting in the MIP contest, Joey is ahead by 0.0255 MIP points and ten strokes POY lead over the same man, Julio Rodriguez; Seho Oh trails Joey by mere seven strokes in the senior department SPOY.

From L to R: Joey Cruz, Julio Rodriguez, Seho Oh

ANNOUNCEMENT: For those new members, SGC has the Grand Finals contest coming up in the next two weeks at Royal Ontario and Kingsforest golf courses on August 25, 2019 & September 1, 2019 respectively. Prizes awarded to member(s) with the lowest aggregate of 2 best net scores of these two consecutive rounds (Best 2 of 2 net scores). Top five win a prize. No qualification needed, just show up and play. Please be reminded to try avoiding having guests for these two days as it a Super Series weekend & Monthly 4 contest culminating at Kingsforest. For ruling on Grand Finals cancellation and ruling, check the posting about ‘Local Rules’ on SGC’s site.

Royal Woodbine golf course as the most centralized and convenient location for almost of the twenty-seven players that showed up and played last Sunday, welcomed us with perfect weather conditions at twenty-eight degrees Celsius with the sun shining brightly all day long. For the whole summer, this was the last time SGC ever got to play this golf course but outside our summer tournament, a few players I’ve known play this course on weekdays.

A cohesive and clutch effort from five players, factored into the equation of net scoring in the high 60s – Joey Cruz, Seho Oh, & Exe Navarette all with 67; Steve Kim & Sophera Tuy trailed two strokes behind with 69. Did I get that feeling players were getting better or the courses were getting easier?

From L to R: Joey Cruz, Seho Oh, Exe Navarette, Steve Kim, Sophera Tuy

Surprisingly, day prize was claimed by three players: The unflappable Joey Cruz together with the quiet assassin Seho Oh and the comeback story Exe Navarette all signed their respective scorecards with nets of 67 as mentioned above. Due to this shared day prize, all three of them as participants of the Nassau scoring contest, captured the total net as well. Exe added to his repertoire by winning the back nine and appeared to be the big winner of them all. Joey & Seho because of these wins just joined the day prize multiple winners club with four other players. Beware people. Guess who’s leading three major categories – MIP, SPOY, & POY, if the season ends today it is Joey Cruz. Repeat of the same feat two years ago? Could somebody stop this guy? 

 

 

Alone seizing the Nassau front nine was the promising Sophera Tuy.

Par 3 closest to the pin contest: Seho Oh getting it done on the par 3 fourth hole while one of SGC’s newbie Sangva Sok when it mattered most, put it on the green on the tenth hole that nobody could beat even if his ball landed twenty yards from the pin location. Way to go, Sangva.

From L to R: Seho Oh, Sangva Sok

Congatulations to the winners.

When things settled with gorgeous playing conditions last Sunday at Glen Cedars golf course at twenty-eight degrees Celsius, there were lots of no shows with only twenty-three players showed up. No surprises here if scores were at the lowest since this golf course offered less difficulty compared to others. As a matter of fact, to attest to this summation, competition was fierce as four players closely carded net scores in the high 60s namely: Steve Kim (66), Mar DeVeyra (68), Rey Plaza (68), & Jess Velarde (69). Worth mentioning was the 79 gross scores of SGC’s best, Manny Chea and Jimmy Manguerra.

From L to R: Steve Kim, Mar DeVeyra, Rey Plaza, Jess Velarde, Manny Chea, Jimmy Manguerra

But in the skim of things where it mattered, Steve Kim started to get on a roll and grabbed momentum. You gave this guy a chance, he took the chance, ran away with the day prize with a net score of 66. Steve won the previous week with a net of 68 making him multiple day prize winner together with three others. He won the Nassau back nine and the total net scores which were mirror wins of a week ago. Game is finally rounding into form, isn’t it?

Rey Plaza who was on a tear since we started back in May, won the Nassau front nine credibly. He also leads Joey Cruz by four strokes in the SPOY contest.

In the closest to the pin contest, the quite solid and stoic Manny Chea got the par 3 fifth hole. On the sixteenth hole, this was a bit of perplexing result as two players – Dave Nelson & Jimmy Manguerra shared the prize. I was told that no matter how many times they measured those two shots, it came up identical. Anyway, it was nice of them to get the tie decision.

From L to R: Manny Chea, Dave Nelson, Jimmy Manguerra

MIP (Most Improved Player) department. There is a little irony in this contest as well. Maybe it’s still too early to tell with nine more games unaccounted for. With fifteen games gone, there were only two players qualified with all the required criteria to win this contest. Bingoy Peña leads Joey Cruz by 0.0322 points. Joey with the completion of fifteen games, leads the POY contest. Just to remind you folks, he is contending to whatever contests SGC offers. Isn’t this called consistency? Darn right.

From L to R: Bingoy Peña, Joey Cruz

At thirty degrees Celsius at Lakeridge golf course it was a little too hot for a few of twenty-seven SGC members that showed up and played with that soaring heat last Sunday. A few of them who reside in the west end were also a bit reluctant of playing that day because of quite the distance to travel to this east end venue which is in the beautiful little town of Innisfil. But since it was a Super Series week and the conclusion of the monthly race involved, as well as facing difficulty of a challenging golf course, it didn’t matter anyway. Or did it?

One of the big hitting players, the muscular Steve Kim thought that this golf course was there for the taking and to his liking, mind you. Eventually finishing with a net score of 68, Steve grabbed the day prize. Together with Sophera Tuy with a net of 69, they were the only ones who signed their score cards in the high net 60s. As you guessed it, Steve also won the Nassau total net and shared the back nine with Sophera.

Other Nassau winners were the ever “show me the money” kind of guy Rey Plaza captured the front nine and as mentioned above, the up & coming Sophera Tuy shared the back nine with Steve Kim.

From L to R: Rey Plaza, Sophera Tuy

In the accuracy shot department, the sly Ross Bautsta never got challenged on the difficult par 3 seventh hole while the never giving up wily veteran Fred Halili got it the closest on the seventeenth demonic water infested hole.

From L to R: Ross Bautista, Fred Halili

But who has got the biggest fish of them all? Why it was none other than the smooth swinging Dave Nelson who narrowly beat two pursuers by two strokes and snatching the Super Series 3. Well done. By the way, Dave also got the best gross score of the day with an 82 followed by Joey Cruz with an 83.

In the consistency department – the Month 3 contest, it was Jun Paculaba who was leading all the way from the very start for four weeks but got caught at the very last game by who else, Steve Kim. These two gentlemen shared the top prize for this coveted contest.

From L to R: Jun Paculaba, Steve Kim

Congratulations to all winners.

For complete results of all the scores and winners, please go to “Year to date results”. We are past the halfway mark of our summer past time, and this is to remind you that the Blind Partner contest will be held on September 29, 2019 at Kingsforest.

BraeBen golf course because of its high elevation located in the heart of Mississauga city would give a nice view of its sprawling third largest city in Ontario. Despite its name, Toronto Pearson International Airport, which is Canada’s busiest airport, is largely located in Mississauga. The last time SGC played this golf course two years ago sometime in the Spring, it was a disaster – rain, devastating wind as well single digit temperature that created havoc among those players who showed up and played. This time around with twenty-six players, welcomed a nicer twenty-seven degrees Celsius with little wind. It was much nicer weather last Sunday, indeed. I guessed we learned from previous engagements how to use proper and timely scheduling.

This golf venue could give way to those golfers most specially with length off the tee. One of the big bashers, Jess Velarde who signed a net score of 65, one shot clear of Bingoy Peña and Seho Oh took advantage of the pristine conditions. He grabbed the day prize and with this first win in only seven starts, Jess also won the Nassau back and the total net. And what do you know, he brought along with him two bags of crispy fried pork rinds, (chicharron) together with garlic vinegar sauce that was devoured by everybody after the round. Thank you very much.

Seho Oh, who was a multiple winner a week ago captured the Nassau front nine with a net of 30. He, together with Jess Velarde and Bingoy Peña got exemptions for next Sunday’s Super Series.

Closest to the pin contest: Bingoy Peña got it so close on the par 3 hole seventh which had almost an eerie 20-foot drop from the tee box. Jun Paculaba who has five, six and seven strokes lead over Exe Navarette, Steve Kim, and Mike Montilla respectively for the monthly race, grabbed the thirteenth hole.

From L to R: Bingoy Peña, Jun Paculaba

Congratulations to the winners.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 12 noon start at Lakeridge this Sunday. It is Super Series week and the culmination of Month 3 contest.

Twenty-seven-degree Celsius temperature it was last Sunday, embracing twenty players playing golf at Royal Woodbine golf course. With the sun completely out there all day long and with a slightly prevailing wind pressing against our faces, it was ideal for a round of golf to relax and forget life for a while. There was a wedding party celebration happening at the same time with the speakers blasting out loud that you could hear them throughout the golf course. What this meant was since the patio and the entire bar was occupied, we couldn’t have drinks after our round. Anyway, time goes on so fast and before we even realized it, we are past the halfway mark of our summer past time.

Who earned a place with grit and tenacity that Sunday? Seho Oh did. He’s a fierce competitor with no hard edges. Considered by many as one of the nicest members you can get acquainted with, on and off the golf course. By the way Seho got game too. Why was that? With posting a score net of 67, Seho who boasts the slowest backswing I’ve ever seen, ended the day winning the day prize as well as the Nassau front net of 33 and the total net of course. Nice, very nice.

Fred Bataclan one of our newbies this year proved to be one of the most consistent players. He seemed to be at the top of the leaderboard every time he teed off and not going home empty handed. He won the Nassau back with net 30. Fred together with Jun Paculaba with both net 68, Seho with net 67, they were the only ones who netted in the high 60s.

Closest to the pin contest: Yes, we could say it again, Seho Oh got that shot closest on par 3 seventh hole. Another quiet player who was hard to notice when he played but you could only hear the sound hits on the ball with his golf club, Jun Paculaba won the fourteenth hole.

From L to R: Seho Oh, Jun Paculaba

ANNOUNCEMENT: Please come earlier than 12 noon tee time at BraeBen. We have 7 foursomes but booked earlier with 5 foursomes. BraeBen management was nice enough to accommodate two extra foursomes with possible tee off at first and tenth holes.

What else would you reflect upon after a week of celebrating SGC’c climb to the top of the golf news by winning last week’s GTA Interleague event? Continue playing or savor the nostalgic moment for the rest of the week? In case you did not know, since its GTA creation ten years ago, no GTA organization has won this event three times so far. From what I learned only four other organizations including SGC were twice winners. So, what do you think folks? Let’s not get carried away but it’s sure is something to think about – going first to get the big 3? Too early to tell but nice to peddle with the thought.

Twenty-three players enjoyed the twenty-five-degree Celsius weather playing at Kingsforest last Sunday. The members who showed up was treated by SGC to hamburger and chicken wings dinner complete with drinks after the game for the sake of somewhat appreciation for what we achieved a week ago. Not bad, not bad at all.

So, what happened after the aftermath? Playing to the beat of his own drums Jimmy Manguerra proved that playing on this difficult golf course, if nobody would take the honors, did not shy away taking most of the prizes. By signing a net score of 70, he got himself the day prize. Jimmy just joined a couple of players with multiple wins this year. With his performance last Sunday, he bagged Nassau front and total net convincingly as well,

 

 

Other Nassau winners: A scoring streak for the past three weeks was being held by excellent golf course tactician Exe Navarette who grabbed and shared the Nassau back with Sennix Bontigao. Sennix as we all knew kind of lost his grip for the past two months on playing intensely but showing as of late that look in his eyes of coming back.

From L to R: Exe Navarette, Sennix Bontigao

Closest to the pin contest: Mr. Consistency himself, Joey Cruz did it again by beating two others on the seventh par 3 hole. An ever humble Sophera Tuy claimed the closest shot on the fourteenth hole. Sophera, one of the new kids on the block was saying that it was just a lucky shot. Lucky or not, don’t sell yourself short. We all had that shining moment at one point or another, didn’t we? This combination of Joey & Sophera was the same combo that won two of the closest to the pin contests on June 16 at Copetown golf course.

From L to R: Joey Cruz, Sophera Tuy

Congratulations to the winners.