Early to rise

Sleeping for only a few hours is bad for your health, but there are some events which require you to be up very early and you don’t feel grumpy at all when you’re there.

Today will be one of those days as the May Monthly Medal of Alta Vista Golf and Country will be taking place. I don’t mind having to be up before 4 a.m. and being at the clubhouse by 5 a.m. for a very early tee off as I’ll be with some of my closest friends.

A couple of days ago, I was up before sunrise and made it to AVGCC by 6 a.m. for the 2011/GTour of Globe Business. It was truly and event worth playing in because of the very interesting format aside from being in the company of wonderful people.

The four-man team scramble made it different from the many tournaments that I have played in since I first picked up the game almost 16 years ago.

I was paired with two people I have known even before I was playing golf – Ben Dapat and Felix ‘Boy’ Tiukinhoy – and completing our team was Globe’s Maremee ‘Jennifer’ Velez-Matinong.

Maremee got her new nickname from Boy who she shared a cart with. I don’t know where Boy got it, maybe it was because he was a bit busy during the round due to matters concerning the basketball league he is running.

After 18 holes, we were happy to head back to the clubhouse with a team score of one-under-par. That was until we learned that one team shot nine-under-par.

Boy was probably the happiest, not because the well-respected Mr. Dapat named him as the team’s star player, but because he won the special award for the most accurate second shot on the par-4 4th landing his ball 15 inches from the hole.

The winning team was composed of Boy Gonzalez, Manny Osmeña II, Ritchie Go, and Edwardson Chiu.

I look forward to playing in tournaments of a similar format in the future as it is a refreshing twist to the game that already makes us twist and turn each time we hit a bad shot, which at times seem to happen quite often.

To Boboy Romero and the rest of the Globe Business people including my very good friend Rowena Vivares-Moras, it was a lot of fun playing in your event.

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The Junior Golf Committee of AVGCC is one of the hardest working groups especially during the school break. Their chairman, Benjie Hortelano, told me the other day that the team had won some recent events.

Last May 9 and 10 at Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club in Bacolod City, Emy Lou Tan was the champion for girls class A while Kevin Park ruled boy’s class E.

David Park was the first runner-up for class A boys and Ericka Lim was also first runner-up for class B girls.

Last May 12 and 13 at Cebu Country Club, Irina Gabasa ruled girls class A while Kevin Park topped boys class E and Wei Wei Gao was champion for boy’s class C.

Ericka Lim was first runner-up for girls B and Wei Fang Gao was first runner-up for girls E. David Park was second runner-up for boys A and Wei Yu Gao finished the same for class D for boys.

Congratulations to the junior golfers of AVGCC and to the very active parents, who are working very hard to develop their kids.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings to Dexter Alazas, Cheryl Ouano, Marites Chavez-Pernito, and Col. Juvymax Uy, who are all turning a year older today.

Advance greetings to those turning a year older tomorrow like my squadmate Police Supt. Conrado ‘Rady’ Gongon.

More power to all of you!