Twenty-one players showed up at last Sunday’s Kingsforest round of golf. A thirty-three-degree Celsius temperature greeted the players with rising humidity around the Hamilton peninsula all afternoon long. It was a “Blind Partner” contest day with free hamburger dinner with drink of your choice courtesy of SGC after the round. It was surprising to learn that results after the round were not favourable to low scoring binge as no one signed a scorecard with net score in the 60s. SGC had not played Kingsforest for a while this season up to now and still this golf course reminded everyone how difficult this tree lined holes could be.

This mandatory entry to Bind Partner contest was a combination of two players tallying their total net scores. Top three partnerships with lowest net scores would win the prize. Aside from this contest there was the option of joining the Nassau corners contest as well. Scoring low could award yourself winning both contests provided you were lucky enough to pick the right partner from the draw for the Blind Partner contest. Well, someone did it.

Here are the partnership winners:

                1. Bert Cerrudo (70) & Bong Munson (74) with 144 total net   points

                2. Exe Navarette (75) & Dave Nelson (75) with 150 total net points

                3^.  Exe Navarette (75) & (76) Jun Paculaba with 151 total net points

You might be wondering how Exe Navarette’s name appeared twice above. Since there was an odd number of players (21 participants), Exe had the honor of picking a partner twice when he picked the designated lucky number from the draw. It so happened that he luckily picked those two players good enough to bag second & third place.  

Nassau corners: Bert Cerrudo who was also the day prize winner won the total net score and shared the front nine with often weekly winner Mar DeVeyra. A single rose member among thorns was the back nine winner, Lina Mayo.

 

 

 

 

 

Closest to the pin contest: Bong Munson with a sharp iron shot at the par 3 4^th hole fired the winner while Jess Velarde got the best of previous shot by Joey Cruz at the par 3 14^th hole.

 

 

 

 

 

Major Awards Update:

MIP (Most Improved Player): Not much change here. JC Montilla still leads by same huge margin as last week over Bingoy Peña. Seho Oh who just registered his fifteenth game to qualify, comes from nowhere and makes a huge leap by dislodging Mike Montilla from third place. Jimmy Manguerra down a knot in fifth place.

SPOY (Senior Player of the Year): Top two places did not change at all with Mar DeVeyra still in first place holds eleven strokes better than Seho Oh from three strokes last week. Exe Navarette grabs third place a stroke behind Seho. Rey Plaza shares fourth place with Joey Cruz.

POY (Player of the Year): This seems to be a very tight race for two players vying for the top honor. Jimmy Manguerra lost a stroke from four strokes to three strokes over JC Montilla. But guess who is making a noise jumping from fifth place to third place? Mar DeVeyra; although he is behind JC by whopping twenty-six strokes, with nine more games to go, who knows. A stroke behind Mar is the idle Jojo Dizon in fourth place. Relegated to fifth from fourth place a week ago is Mike Montilla three behind Jojo.

 

There are bad news and good news to announce about SGC’s round yesterday. The bad news: It was discovered that there was an error in the handicapping used at last Sunday’s Kingsforest round. This writer had posted the wrong player’s handicaps and in turn the incorrect handicap listing was handed to Joey Cruz for calculations. Joey Cruz and Bingoy Peña stumbled on the mistake resulting to a re-calculation of the results. The handicap listing that was used was the handicap for Royal Ontario a week ago instead of Kingsforest. The difference was higher handicaps for most players involved. The good news: After Joey did the re-assessment, the Nassau corners results and the standings in the order of finish including the “Blind Partner” contest were not affected. As a result, the total net outcome was higher than as announced after the round. Example – the lowest total net score for the day prize winner was 70 instead of 68.

This writer regrets the error and the consequences that it caused the members who played last Sunday at KIngsforest. Ditto also to those who put on extra effort to correct the problem. I apologize to the false pretense that this human error had given you prior to the round. If you have any concerns or questions regarding the matter, please contact me or Joey Cruz.

Corrected net results will be posted soon.

A humid twenty-four degrees Celsius welcomed a twenty-seven-member field at last Sunday’s Super Series week. Surprisingly enough, of all the Kaneff golf courses, Royal Ontario presented SGC with no uproar, nor a fuzz whatsoever so on we played away. Could it be the reason of this venue being farther away from the main office location? Whatever it was, SGC likened the fact that this golf course aside from being one of the nicest courses we played, no hassle from those who were running the show at this site. So far so good. Only one glitch though, a few of the greens were showing damaged done by abusive suspected golfers not repairing ball marks and showing disregard by leaving dragged shoe cleat marks on the green surface. A good reminder to all SGC members to exercise care every time we played any golf course which undoubtedly members continued to do so. It was a nice day with the sun shining brightly but we were taken by surprise because it rained hard but only for three holes during the round then the sun came out again for the rest of the afternoon.

Here’s how things ended up at last Sunday’s Royal Ontario event. It was just a matter of time for our mild-mannered sophomore member to show what he has got. After a winless year last year, Erland Ibañez got it together for his sixth game of the year. He warranted a huge win by signing a net score of 67 to seal a day prize victory. Erland distinctively winning the ever huge sought after Super Series contest as well as the Nassau back nine & total net corners. Hold on, he also connected winning the closest to the pin contest at par 3 eleventh hole nearly missing an ace by inches. Boy, talked about a wholesale sale, this was it. It was refreshing to see broke the monotony of habitual winners for the past three months. Ironically enough, Erland claimed that he did not break 100 playing Copetown golf course a day before as a member of SOGA organization.

Other Nassau corner winners: Jojo Dizon who is away for the next two weeks for a R&R shared the spotlight with Bong Munson by grabbing the front nine.

A cunning Sennix Bontigao feeling guilty to beat a previous nearest shot to the pin by Rey Plaza, got the closest at the par 3 eight hole.

Super Series 3: As mentioned above  Erland Ibañez captured the first prize with net score of 67 while four players shared second place with net 73 – Mar DeVeyra, Jojo Dizon, Exe Navarette, & Seho Oh.

Month 3 contest: A found new love with his recycled swing, Mar DeVeyra beat a heavily favored, disappointed Jimmy Manguerra by slimmest of margins – one stroke to win the monthly contest.  Mar, SGC’s original proud member since its creation way, way back, was making noise a lot lately. We noticed. JC Montilla settled farther back in third place money.

MIP: Results for race to Most Improved Player is posted. No new member has qualified for this contest. After fifteen games, only six members made it to regulations with ten games unaccounted for. JC Montilla leads the top six with 1.1265 differential points while Bingoy Peña comes second with a mere 0.1669 points behind. Mike Montilla, Jimmy Manguerra, & Rey Plaza are in third, fourth, & fifth place respectively with Jojo Dizon bringing up the rear in sixth place. Are we getting challenged yet as the season goes? Lots of time folks to get better.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Annual ‘Blind Partner’ contest this Sunday at Kingsforest. Entry for this contest is mandatory. If you show up and want to play, you are obligated to pay the entry fee of $20. For those new members, please ask a member about this contest or go to our ‘Local Rules’ web site for contest rules.

Food for thought: It is OK to compete. It is also OK to lose as you can’t win them all. Moral of this quip: “The feeling of losing makes it hard to swallow onto yourself but it is harder for others to keep going if you impose your ill feelings toward them.”

SGC was not sure if last Sunday’s round at Royal Woodbine golf course was going to happen at all. Why? Overnight rain as well as continuous rain from morning until mid afternoon. Twenty members hoping for the rain to stop were just hanging around the club house watching the 147th British Open which was won by Francesco Molinari taking with him the $1.89 million prize. Patrick Reed won $1.98 million for his Masters’ victory, and Brooks Koepka won $2.16 million at the U.S. Open. In case you wanted to know, Tiger Woods who squandered his lead at the eleventh and twelfth hole, tied for sixth and got $327K for his troubles. Anyway, mother nature gave us a break and after a bit past two o’clock in the afternoon, rain stopped so away we went. It turned out to be a beautiful day after all although the course was a bit soaked but other than that, temperature was ideal. The sun smiled on us in the latter part of our round.

Fourteenth game of the year and with wet course presented before us and with not much ball roll, you were setting up a stage for bombers and bombers alike, for sure. One of hard hitting members, Jimmy Manguerra fired a gem with a gross score of 69. Deservingly, Jimmy seized the day prize and he was also added to this summer’s multiple winner list. Jimmy also won the Nassau total net as well as the back nine.

Manny Marquez who got the habit of winning something every time he decided to show up and play, grabbed the Nassau front nine.

A cunning veteran member who most likely would not consider playing in a very wet setting, surprised himself by deciding to stay and play. Exe Navarette was the only other player to shoot in the net 60s as he signed his scorecard with net 66. Together with Jimmy Manguerra, both got a free ticket to next Sunday’s Super Series entry. Well done.

It was getting hot and heavy to three of the contests going on as we passed the halfway mark, almost.

Let’s start with Month 3 contest. Jimmy Manguerra dethroned last week’s leader, JC Montilla who now trails by five strokes. Mar DeVeyra sits in third place behind JC by a stroke.

In the race to POY, Jimmy Manguerra who trailed JC Montilla by eight strokes a week ago, reversed positions with JC because of Jimmy’s great performance last Sunday. He now leads JC by eight himself. Jojo Dizon jumped to third place tie with Mike Montilla with both thirty-three points behind the lead. Mar DeVeyra comfortably is in fifth place.

In the SPOY contest, we have a new leader emerging. Mar DeVeyra grabbed the lead relinquished by Seho Oh who shares second with Rey Plaza. Mar spots Rey & Seho by good two strokes. Bingoy Peña who led two weeks ago, was relegated to fourth followed by Joey Cruz in fifth.

Super Series next week. At the last count, seventeen players so far are entered in this contest with a possible nineteen at Royal Ontario at 2:00 o’clock PM. See you there.

Kaneff golf courses were all above average when it came to design to all of their venues compared to others with respect to green fee rates, but and this was a big but, why management fell in that category where you wished you would have never dealt with them in anyways at all at anytime? Two Sundays ago, we unexpectedly forced to play Legend course instead of the Masters course, at the last minute. It happened again at last Sunday’s round at Carlisle. There was a mixed up of what two nines we were going to play and a call back to us prior to that Sunday never happened in case of any changes. SGC members who showed up early were charged couple of dollars more for green fee when it actually was lesser than that as per previous booking. What was going on? I got a feeling that there was something missing with big organization like this one, and it was coming from the top down to the person cleaning the washrooms. Would you know what it was? Communication. It was a blooming pity to sacrifice those beautiful courses like those managed by people you wished with least desire to deal with. As paying customer, SGC was there to play, plain and simple and not expecting any surprises every time we played a Kaneff golf course.

Anyway, so much for harbouring discontentment and displeasure feelings. Who were the victors at last week’s event? We are past halfway of our great summer past time and this is the best time to think about being a contender or a pretender with so many accolades at stake.

A crafty senior veteran member just performed the best round of the day. And not by any stretch he was thinking of just being lucky. Mar DeVeyra with a spectacular net 63 pulled away from everybody winning the day prize. There is plenty of meat on this bone, mind you. Just a figure of speech, folks.

Nassau corners: Who else but Mar DeVeyra with a superb Sunday performance grabbed the total net as well as the front nine. Ron Wilson who won few prizes a week ago, seized the back nine. Now that was a persevering habit, wasn’t it? Just another day at the office.

There was no closest to the pin contest as there was no time preparing for this contest.

SPOY: We have a new senior leader going to round fourteen. Seho Oh upon completion of his twelfth game, now leads Bingoy Peña by eight points. Rey Plaza sits in third place two points behind second place while Mar Deveyra climbing up to fourth place two points behind Rey.

POY: No changes here going to the fourteenth game of the year, but JC Montilla gained a stroke to add to his seven point lead a week ago on Jimmy Manguerra. Jimmy is now behind eight points. Mike Montilla still lagging behind in third, twenty-three points behind the leader followed by Jojo Dizon in fourth place and Bingoy Peña in fifth. Two more rounds to make the magic number fifteen with twelve games to go. Lots of time folks.

SGC would like to acknowledge the hardest working three people week in and week out for now – Jojo Dizon, Bingoy Peña & Joey Cruz. You absolutely know what they do to keep our event running smoothly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: A word of advice from SGC prez to those who do not confirm but still show up to play or vice versa: Please be considerate. You are getting problematic to those people who are arranging the pairing list most especially when the golf course management asks for SGC’s lineup in advance. Thank you.

Food for thought: Did you never think that every time SGC played Lionhead golf course, we could not help it but expected a wicked crescendo stunt before we teed off? It happened again last Sunday. Lionhead management according to them, had a mixed up with their scheduling. So instead of playing the Masters course we were transferred to play the other course, the Legend course. It was frustrating to twenty-three players plus one guest when we were told about the switch since we were prepared to play the Masters. No question, Legend course was a lot harder than the Masters but we were faced with a huge turn around we never expected – from bad to worse. If I still remembered correctly when we played here last year, we were relegated down to two-hour wait of our start time. The irony to it all, we have something to think about playing this course again next year, right members?

As anticipated playing this venue unexpectedly was a struggle for most as indicated by high scoring. So, who were the weekend winners?

This member who does not play regularly, has a knack of performing his best when conditions are not so ideal. Ron Wilson who won here four weeks ago, captured the day prize with an astonishingly higher net of 71 that nobody else could beat. As if he was saying, “You guys don’t want it, then I’ll take it.” There was no onslaught of net scoring in the high 60s this time. No one broke net 70, not surprisingly.

Nassau corners: Ron Wilson seized unwillingly the back nine and the total net, why of course?. JC Montilla won the lowest net at the front nine.

Closest to the pin: Hey now, when you’re hot, you’re hot. Ron Wilson took the fourth hole while nobody could get closer than Seho Oh’s shot at the seventeenth hole.

Major updates:

SPOY: Twelve games were in. This is the number required to win this contest and we have a new leader. Bingoy Peña leads Rey Plaza by three points. With thirteen more games to go, those who have six or less games to make the number (12), there is still huge chance of catching the leaders for sure. Never give up.

POY: A long way to go here but JC Montilla increased his lead from six points to seven points over Jimmy Manguerra. Mike Montilla remains in third place, twenty-three whopping points behind the leader while Jojo Dizon sits in fifth place seven points behind Mike. Fifteen games are the required magic number here folks.

Announcement: Please come to Carlise this Sunday before 1 PM. This is a shot gun start. The round will start without you if you come late.

There is someone among us needs a major surgery and will be off for almost three weeks to rest and recover. We pray for his successful recovery.

Well, well, well. With scorching heat at 34 degrees Celsius, which was a little bit over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, twenty-one players showed up and played Royal Ontario golf course last Sunday. Surprisingly, few players rarely complained about the searing heat as it was not so bad with minor windy presence as we went about our rounds. None of the players I recalled walked the course though as it turned out it was a good idea. Indeed.

Equaling the lowest round of the week, the effervescent Fred Halili sat at 65 net score alongside the hard-hitting Jess Velarde. They shared the honors of taking the day prize. Remarkably enough, this was the very first for both gentlemen. More coming from both members, don’t you think so? This was the sixth time in eleven games that two players tied for the day prize.

Nassau corners: With Jess Velarde having one of Sunday’s top rounds with net score of 65, he seized the total net score as well as grabbing the front nine. It did not turn out a very good day for Jess after all as he lost his expensive yardage range finder he left in the power cart when he made the switch. The back nine belonged to both Sennix Bontigao and JC Montilla.

Closest to the pin went to Jimmy Manguerra on the longest par 3 seventeenth hole.

We are almost hallway to our golf season with fourteen games unaccounted for. So far with eleven games in the books, our POY leader still hanging in there.  JC Montilla leads Jimmy Manguerra by the slimmest of margin of six strokes. Climbing up in third place is Mike Montilla eighteen points behind the leader while Bingoy Peña and Rey Plaza share fourth place followed closely by Jojo Dizon in sixth place a mere stroke behind those two.

In the SPOY division, Bingoy Peña together with Rey Plaza now co-lead with a total net score of 838. Joey Cruz sits in third place ten points behind while Mar DeVeyra comfortably taking fourth. If you only count ten games, Seho OH leads everybody which is a very secured spot so far.

It was a futile request for us to use the club house for a quenching round of cold drinks after the round simply because there was a wedding reception going on. No golfers were allowed to enter the reception area.

An encouraging third place finish by SGC at this year’s GTA Interleague tournament last Saturday at Station Creek North golf course participated by six golf associations gave our members a pleasing morale lift when it comes to competing in such a huge event. First, we commend BGAT organization for hosting this year – a wonderful job indeed. Congratulations to TALAMAK organization for winning this year’s GTA championship trophy, a back to back effort. To all of us though, this was a matter of joining a goal towards getting together, seeing familiar faces, and playing just for fun of it. It was announced earlier that this golf venue could only take 156 players but only 154 players showed up. It was sad to say that those two players were from SGC. To tell you the truth, two of the clubs had high number of members willing to participate but because of the player limitation, a lot of the members sacrificially withdrew including a couple of their respective presidents. Nice. Somebody suggested that if next year’s high attendance is anticipated, another venue is a possibility to accommodate the number. A bigger headache to run for the host, don’t you think so?

Anyway, at twenty-two degrees Celsius the weather did not cooperate. No sun at all with the annoying intermittent showers feeling a bit chilly. It was gloomy throughout the day and was getting dark with two holes to play. Luckily, the competition went on. A select few excelled during the tournament guided by solid hopes of winning hard-earned prizes. SGC is so proud of these members shown below to helped SGC’s third placing and got rewarded by their performance. Here are the results:

TEAM:

1) Talamak – 819 (Champion)
2) PhilCan – 840
3) Sierra – 848
4) SOGA – 852
5) BGAT – 858
6) DBGC – 875

INDIVIDUAL:

Gross: Class A – Greg Santiago (74)
Class B – Mike Montilla (80) SGC
Class C – Val Agorilla (84)
Class D – Herbert Uy (93)
Net : Class A – Mike Meneses (65)
Class B – Arvin SalvaCruz (64)
Class C – Herbert Respall (59)
Class D – Ross Gonzales (65)

NASSAU CORNERS:

Class A: F9 – Rene Nacin (29) = $60.00 and Romie Lat (29) = $60.00
B9 – Ed Ilao (34) = ($120.00) SGC
18 – Mike Meneses (65) = $75.00 and Romie Lat (65) = $75.00

Class B: F9 – Mike Montilla (30) =$60.00 SGC and Bobby Chung (30) = $60.00
B9 – JC Montilla (30) = $120.00 SGC
18 – Arvin SalvaCruz (64) = $150.00

Class C: F9 – Herbert Respall (26) = $120.00
B9 – Herbert Respall (33) = $60.00 and Arun Thomas (33) = $60.00
18 – Herbert Respall (59) = $150.00

Class D: F9 – Ross Gonzales (28) = $60.00 and Tony Aguirre (28) = $60.00
B9 – Uriel Avancenia (32) = $ 60.00 and Ramon Gorospe (32) = $60.00
18 – Ross Gonzales (65) = $150.00

NOTES:

1) no show players were given 10 strokes per hole.
2) the 9-6-3 tie breaking rule was applied
3) Lina Mayo being the 4th best “C” player of Sierra, was assigned to be the 3rd player for their “D” class.

Here is the full list of SGC members who contributed to our third place finish:

SIERRA
A – Ed  Ilao – Sierra	71
A – Joey  Cruz – Sierra	75
A – Ross Bautista – Sierra	75
Class total	221
B – Mikee Montilla – Sierra	66
B – Manny Marquez – Sierra	66
B – JC  Montilla – Sierra	67
Class total	199
C – Sennix  Bontigao – Sierra	68
C – Sam Kim – Sierra	70
C – Exe Navarette – Sierra	71
Class total	209
D – Louie Romero – Sierra	71
C – Lina Mayo – Sierra	72
D – Mar de Vera – Sierra	76
Class total	219
TOTAL	848

At thirty-three degrees Celsius with the sun burning radiantly, it was not as hot as the weather people predicted. As a matter of fact, they put the greater Toronto area under extreme heat warning. At Glen Cedars golf course last Sunday, it was no bother to twenty-six players who enjoyed the weather having the climactic expectations vying to win the shortened Super Series 2 contest.

Bert Cerrudo won the day prize with net score of 64. He also won the Nassau front nine corner as well as the total net score. This was a sign he said seeing an inspiring light at the end of the tunnel. He also mentioned about Tiger Woods contributing to helping him with his short game. If you believe that, he has Golden Gate bridge to sell you.

Other Nassau corner winners: Bong Munson who had to birdie the 18th par 5 hole signed a whopping back nine net score of 31 to share with Julio Rodriguez who has got a habit of streaky wins when he got it going. Julio not to be outdone, fired a convincing eagle at the same hole.

 

 

 

 

 

This member with a lowest gross of the day, leads both Month 2 and POY contests. Thanks a lot to his consistent play, Jimmy Manguerra again showed he was nothing but a top dog with his gross score of spectacular two over 74. Did I say he fired the lowest gross scores seven times out of nine times he played? Any challenges guys?

Super Series 2 winners: Bert Cerrudo grabbed the first prize as SGC’s never give up, always frequently getting it close on par 3s, Mar DeVeyra seized second place with Jimmy Manguerra with both scoring net closing 69. Julio Rodriguez sat comfortably in fourth place.

Closest to the pin contest: Our high-strung treasurer Bingoy Peña no doubt got it close on hole 5. Whatever happened to our triple major title winner last year Joey Cruz as of late? This was the first time we heard of him by winning hole 16th. Giving us a break, wasn’t he?

 

 

 

 

 

Update in the SPOY contest: After nine rounds of completion, one of our nicest seniors, Seho Oh looks like a trending speeding off leader with an in your face attitude. Why? You would feel the same way if you lead by massive seventeen points over his closest rival. Too early to tell but let’s try to lull him to sleep for a while to catch up with him. Everybody knows how…..wink………wink.

Let us not forget that only four players who scored net scores in the 60s three of them were already mentioned above. The other was Mike Montilla who turned in a net score of second best 68.

ANNOUNCEMENT: BIGAT, the host for this GTA Interleague just announces that Station Creek management no longer intends to draw a 12-inch radius circle around every hole. Instead, players measure 12 inches (Station Creek provides a measuring stick for every group) from the hole and if the ball lies within the measurement, the ball is considered putted out. They claim that this idea was successfully imposed often at this venue with no hitch at all. You need to submit two score cards – one for GTA and the other to SGC with all scores & both score cards signed by all players in your respected group. SGC then verifies your individual score against the one submitted to GTA.

Those members playing in the GTA Interleague event, SGC suggests wearing dark colored long pants or shorts. Since this GTA event is a sanctioned SGC event, your score will count towards SGC’s scoring tabulation. This is the conclusion of Month 2 contest. Wish you good luck members.

At twenty-one degrees Celsius, not a whisper of grumbling about the weather this time around at Lionhead’s Masters golf course last Sunday. We would hope to see mother nature treating us this good at least until late Fall. Nothing wrong with a wishful thinking, is there? Nice to see twenty-eight players battle it out for position with looming Month 2 contest in the horizon. Consistency is the name of the game folks.

For a sport that’s always been perceived as dominated by men, sport needs women. It gives calm and changes the culture of the whole sport in most sensible ways, no matter how you look at it. SGC gladly welcomes back our lone female member, Lina Mayo. After a long, long hiatus Lina who values as one of the mainstays of this organization, plays not surprisingly exceptionally well but enjoys doing it.

Being weekend warriors, no one was sure who would score the lowest score most specially with a not so easy course like the Masters as indicated by high scores submitted by the players. Ron Wilson carded a lone net score in the sixties closing with a 68 to seal an emphatic three-shot victory over Manny Marquez to win the day prize.

Nassau corners: Who else but an almost sweep by Ron Wilson to seize the back nine and total net score. Manny Marquez on the heels of a Nassau sweep last week was still able to grind out a good front nine win. The pieces are coming together for Manny and it figures that this maybe his breakout season.

Who has got the most accurate shots? This crafty veteran, Mar DeVeyra who would surprise us more often than not, shot it close on the par 3 eight hole. Jimmy Manguerra in all likelihood got the better of us by shooting the closest at the long hazardous eleventh hole.

ANNOUNCEMENT: BIGAT, the host for this GTA Interleague just announces an increase of $5 to the entry fee to make it a total of $125. This is due to the choice of dinner menu with Station Creek according to them. This better be good.

Super Series is this week at Glen Cedars.