Another successful event

If not for the severity of the lower back pains that I had to endure in the last few holes, it was another great experience taking part in the Ateneo-La Salle Golf Classic Cebu in a foursome that had two Green Archers and two Blue Eagles.

I was lucky that I found a free slot in the schedule of Dr. Laurence Lim of Sugbu Medical later that day and felt much better after a rehab session.

But I’d rather write about the good things about this tournament that has been held for the eighth straight year in Cebu.

The results showed that Ateneo, which has the numbers due to the alumni of Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (formerly SHS-Boys) to boost their stock, once again won the overall title.

This year La Salle had one more player than Ateneo, 28-27, but several of the players that the Green Archers hoped would be donning the school colors that day were at another course taking part in the Philsutech tournament.

In my flight, there were two of us in green, Bruce Chiongbian and this deadline beater while the Blue Eagles were my compadre and Big Brother Ramon Sebastian and Joel Ong, who was first hesitant to join, but I guess was convinced to take part when I wrote about the event.

Joel and I went to the University of the Philippines for college but are in the event because of our schools in the past, Andres Soriano Memorial School de la Salle for me and Sacred Heart School for Boys for him.

The tournament rules stipulate that those who spent at least two years in a La Salle or Jesuit school qualify. Those who went to both kinds of schools can choose like Ed Misa, who was in La Salle Bacolod for High School and Ateneo de Manila for college.

Ed did not play yesterday as he was busy at the Mercedes Plantation Golf and Country Club in Medellin, but made it to the awards ceremony at Teatro Casino.

I wasn’t in a bad group as two of those in our flight won trophies for lowest net in their classes – Ramon for class A and Joel for class C.

Bruce, who I still fondly call partner owing to that time we were in the same team in a pro-am event, said that we should have done better for the good of La Salle. He didn’t really mean playing better, but more of trying to get the Ateneans in our flight to play bad hehehe…

The Blue Eagles in the group were hard to shake even if there were a couple of holes where they were out driven by a high handicapper using a 1-iron.

As my Big Brother Ramon always says, “It’s not the drive.”

Next year, it will be La Salle’s turn to host the event. Javy Quintos, president of the One La Salle Cebu Alumni Association, is looking forward to next year’s event hoping for the better economic situation so we can go back to the two-day format that included a matchplay.

La Salle learned a lot from this year’s tournament and one thing we’re looking at is holding the tournament a day before the Philsutech convention where several good players from La Salle are regular delegates.

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MILESTONES: Before I go to my usual birthday greetings, let me first ask our pious readers to pray for the soul of Ricardo Verches, father of my ASMS de la Salle schoolmate Cholo. 

Mr. Verches passed away yesterday morning.

Birthday greetings today go to community editor Divine Sanchez-Ngujo and former Bogo Mayor Tining Martinez. More power to you!

Belated greetings to Karl Fortich, who celebrated yesterday. More power!