Golfers tough task: Keep SEAG winning tradition

Expect a tough stint for the women’s golf team in this week’s Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia. But expect a tougher outing for the men’s squad when action in golf competitions fires off Sept. 10 at the Sungai Long Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur.

For one, the country will be fielding in a four-man team with no experience in SEA Games wars, except perhaps for Juvic Pagunsan, the spearhead of the squad who has had a number of international exposures, including the Putra Cup.

But what makes the task exacting for Jay Bayron, Jesselito Zaragoza, Marvin Dumandan and Pagunsan is that they will not only try to keep the country’s winning tradition in the discipline but must also prove that they deserve to be in the team in the first place.

Doubts were cast on the team’s composition after back-to-back reigning national champion Angelo Que bolted the team in protest to the non-inclusion of Cookie La’O in the team despite the latter’s impressive performance in the RP team qualifiers the NGAP (National Golf Association of the Philippines) had put up.

But the NGAP imposed its authority and named the four, plus alternate Gene Bondoc, to the team, then drew up a program, under the tutelage of British coach George Walker, supplementing each player’s talent and skills.

And Pagunsan underscored his readiness by winning the recent Canlubang Amateur Open, spiking his runaway victory with a record-setting 64 at the Cangolf’s south course.

Though the team has had little international competitions in the run up to the SEA Games, NGAP president Rod Feliciano and team skipper Iggy Clavecilla brought the men’s and women’s squads to the competition venue two weeks before the event to enable them to familiarize themselves with the layout.

"It will indeed be tough, but we’re counting on them. They’ve got talent and are well-motivated," said NGAP executive director Jake Ayson.

The women’s squad doesn’t only have talent. It also boasts of experience.

In fact, Ruby Chico-Walker will be making some kind of a comeback to the very place where she won the very first gold in golf for the country in the 1987 edition of the Games.

Then there is Carmelette Villaroman, the former Philippine Ladies Open champion whose leadership and experience are expected to keep the country in good stead with the fancied teams in the fold, including Thailand, which is likely to be led by the talented twins Aree Song and Naree Song Wonglukueit.

Heidi Chua, perhaps the best player to have come out of the ranks in recent years, finally gets the chance to show her wares in big-time golf as she backstops the team in the three-to-play, two-to-count format event.

For the first time, the hosts are adopting a new format in team competitions, which will be played under the matchplay setup, scheduled in the last two days of the six-day competitions.

The battle for men’s individual honors, which now-pro Gerald Rosales won in Brunei in 1999, will be played in the first four days with the women’s competitions slated in the first three days. The event takes a rest day Sept. 14.

The Philippines had its best moments during the 1991 and 1993 editions of the SEA Games when it won three golds on each occasion.

And who knows, with a little luck and given the right breaks, this bunch of first-timers (men’s) and veterans (women’s) might pull off a surprise or two to duplicate those feats.