Club Filipino's 2010 Corn Tee

Club Filipino Incorporada de Cebu will be hosting the 2010 Corn Tee next week at its golf course in Danao City.

The event is a four-man team competition where each team must have one member of the host club and three guests.

Last Friday, I was up at the CFIC clubhouse located at the penthouse of the FGU-Ayala Life Building inside the Cebu Business Park to meet Joselito 'Jiji' Gullas, the tournament chairman.

Jiji, who was former president of The Freeman, is one of the people who encouraged me to take up golf. He succeeded in making me take up the sport, but not much in making me a better player hehehe…

He has also encouraged me to join the tournament next week. After three of four years of not having gone north to the course in Danao City, I hope to make it there next week and take part in this tournament, which is Club Filipino's annual member-guest event.

I did a research on the history of the CFIC about six years ago and found some interesting material about the early clubhouse and some bits and pieces about the beginnings of Club Filipino.

Although there is no written account, many have said that prison labor was used to build the old course on land owned by the Province of Cebu.

The old course is now where you have the Cebu Business Park. The older members of the club can still picture the old layout and reminisce those wonderful days at the club that they called home. 

How the old course was sold to a private firm is another story in itself. It may have caused the existence of a wonderful course to cease, but it also opened a lot of opportunities for economic growth in Cebu.

The course in Danao was opened in the 1990s and was built by Peter Chiongbian, who was fondly called Maestro by the Cebuano golfers. He earned the name Maestro because he taught many the rudiments of the game.

In fact, he built the course in Danao City alongside Matias 'Gene' Aznar III, who Maestro regarded as one if not his best student.

Maestro told me how difficult it was to find the perfect place to build the new course of the club, but they succeeded in doing so.

The Corn Tee is a celebration of how Club Filipino has evolved into what it is today.

If you want to list up, the entry fee is pegged at P10,000 per team and Jiji said that they have wonderful giveaways at stake for all participants. 

The event is from September 8 to 11 and participants will have to play two rounds within that period.

It's a good reason to drive up north next week.

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Milestones: Belated birthday greetings to my best friend Christopher Rey M. Tio, who has always been there through good and bad times since our college days. He turned a year older last Monday. Although he is now busy being a public servant, he always makes sure he is in Cebu as often as possible.

Belated greetings also go to two old friends Jose Ramon 'Pit-pit' Mercado and Abundia 'Amy' Gabutan-Encontro, who both turned a year older yesterday along with my fraternity brother Rodmil Sanchez.

Congratulations to my cousin Rolando Q. Acas on the opening of Fr. Landz Pizza, Pasta and Coffee along V. Rama Ave.

More power to all of you!