Aboitiz Invitational

The Philippine golf spotlight is on Cebu this week with the staging of the Aboitiz Invitational 2011 at the Cebu Country Club.

Since the event is exclusive for the professionals, the amateurs were given a taste of the course yesterday in the pro-am event that had 30 teams participating.

One pro and three amateurs composed on team and the best net score would count for the hole.

My only wish before we teed off was that I would at least contribute a little to my team that had no less than defending champion Jay Bayron as pro along with the father and son duo of Joey and Joseph Stevens.

After 18 holes, it was a great day for golf and great company. Our team’s score wasn’t exactly spectacular, but definitely decent.

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Jay won the Aboitiz Invitational 2010. He won the tournament after a string of second place finishes.

This year, he said that he has so far finished runner-up thrice, but don’t have a title under his belt.

Maybe he’ll again do it in Cebu, but he said the tough greens would make it anybody’s game.

As a duffer, all greens seem to be tough for me, but for a pro to say that, you should take it seriously.

I’d like to get a bit more technical, but there are also non-golfing readers so let’s leave it that way.

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Aside from having last year’s champion on my team, I also had the chance to be with a former member of the Philippine team. Joey Stevens told us about how the country used to lord it over in Asia in the three years he spent playing for the Philippine team in the 1960s.

He told tales about their exploits in the Putra Cup where they beat host Thailand by so many strokes. Now, there are so many outstanding pros from Thailand, which should already open the eyes of our leaders to what ails the sport in our country.

The Philippines still has a lot of outstanding junior golfers, but when they reach 18 many don’t really have much to look forward to in terms of tournaments.

If we can find a way to breach the gap after junior golf until our players will turn professional, we’ll definitely have more successful national teams and professionals.

One of the things that excite me with the Aboitiz Invitational will be seeing Charles ‘Chuckie’ Hong play as a professional.

Chuckie was not even ten years old when I started writing about his junior golf exploits. Now, he has joined the pro ranks.

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The Aboitiz Invitational will run until Saturday and this shall give the Cebu golf community a chance to watch some of the best in the country and also several foreign players from the Asian Development Tour.

Don’t miss this opportunity.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to Alan Rama, Venezia Milan Uy, Perry Johns, and Sogod Mayor Moonyeen Durano, who all turned a year older last Monday.

The same goes to those who celebrated yesterday like my best friend Christopher Rey M. Tio, Eulani Ocampo-Agloro, and Rosa Harapan-Cabotaje.

Today’s greetings go to Jose Ramon ‘Pitpit’ Mercado, Abundia ‘Amy’ Gabutan-Encontro, and my Tao brother Rodmil Sanchez.

More power to all of you!