Baguio revisited

BAGUIO — They festooned the old Session Road with giant Christmas lanterns to herald the Yuletide season. All in a brave effort to cover the blight of the city.

Baguio is no longer the "moveable feast" of one’s youth. Gone it seems is its exuberance and aura and replaced with some kind of indifference of a city forever in a hurry.

It is pestered with an endless stream of people weaving in and out and enduring what a balikbayan writer friend, Percy Della, noted as the "curse of the taillight tango."

But you go up and trek the old familiar roads and you see the vestiges of the old town in its log cabins, the country club, the ancient houses, giant pine trees, and old igorots carrying the burden of rattan baskets slung on their heads. And the memory of the old Baguio comes rushing back.

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The occasion is the 52nd Fil-Am golf team championship on the old and the new of the best courses up north – the Baguio Country Club, and the Camp John Hay.

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That place is steeped in history. Sometime in the mid-50s, a jolly Mexican-American enlisted man based in Japan would come and nearly topple the top guns of local golf.

"He ended up runner-up to one of the Villalon brothers – Willie or Dick, I couldn’t remember now but even at that time he had the swing and the game," said pro Sixto Domenden, 53, who used to be a standout in the Fil-Am.

The man turned out to be Lee Trevino.

There were other big names who came over. Orville Moody, a former PGA pro, Clyde Sniffen and the amiable Bruce Benner all played in the Fil-Am. Billy Casper, once called the best putter of the tour, also tested John Hay.

And who could forget the exhibition made by golfing legends Arnold Palmer and Gary Player in 1963. The former South African Masters and US Open champion, confronted by the severe terrains and hazards, simply gave up and stalked out of the place.

"He quit on the seventh and later said something like the course being fit for mountain goats," said Domenden.

But that was light years ago. John Hay has since undergone rehab and completely relaid out by the Nicklaus group in 1997, later calling it "Little Augusta."

That seems unfair to the place. For sure, it has its own character and charm.

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"We used to put up Christmas lights on one of the big pine trees fronting the verandah but it just didn’t seem to have the cone-shape of a traditional Christmas tree at night," said Anthony de Leon, deputy general manager of BCC.

So they made their own Christmas tree, with all the pine needles and lights. It now towers more than 50 feet at the fairways of the first and 18th holes.

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He’s always with a smile. Adrian Flores, the media take-charge guy of the Fil-Estate side of the Fil-Am. But very few in the media room knew that Adrian practically grew up in a news room.

His dad, the grizzled sportswriter Roger Flores, would bring Adrian to the Times Journal news room when he was about waist-high. The boy would marvel at the din and buzz of an editorial room at the height of deadline.

Later, he would curl up in chairs and sleep while his dad grappled with beers with friends at the National Press Club bar. Adrian wanted to be a journalist but he remembered being told "one nut is enough in the family." He ended up doing the same media work.

Roger is still at it at 66, doing sidelights on golf events. He with his inimitable style and recurring phrases and quotes.