Before they left for Manila, the team was even tipped to win the gold considering that it’s made up of the finest amateur golfers in the country today.
But under the cold Busan weather, the Filipinos never got hot, in fact turning in a combine four-day effort of 909 strokes for sixth place – 35 shots of the winning team from Chinese-Taipei.
Que, the reigning king of Philippine amateur golf, was 15-over with rounds of 74-77-82-70 while Pagunsan, the former SEA Games individual champion, was 16-over with rounds of 75-77-73-79.
Delariarte wound up at 17-over (76-77-80-72) and Dizon at 32-over (79-78-70-84).
In four days at the Asiad Country Club, only Delariarte and Que managed to break or match par, their most decent rounds coming on the final day.
"It came too late," said a golf official when he should have said that it never came.
Quick Visit: Vince "The Prince" Hizon made a quick stop at the main press center of the Busan Asian Games Sunday after missing a chance to catch more action on the field because of the rains.
Vince, now playing for Red Bull in the Philippine Basketball Association, flew in last Saturday to "just look around" while enjoying a very short break in his PBA calendar.
The Fil-American cager with the looks of a movie star denied that RP equestrianne and Sydney Olympics veteran Toni Leviste is the main reason he’s in Busan.
"Oh, we already broke off," Vince, a very close friend of Robert Jaworski Jr. who’s now married to equestrianne Mikee Cojuangco, said, referring to Toni.
Besides, the equestrian competition will not begin until the 11th of October. And Vince was already scheduled to leave for Manila Monday afternoon.
But there might be a change of plan if Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao, who came here along with team owner George Chua, team manager Tony Chua and team consultant Andy Jao, would allow him to stay on for a couple more days.
"We have a team practice but I’ll try to talk the coach Yeng if I could stay on for a while," said Vince.
Then probably go and see Toni?
Surfin’ Is Easy: Filipino sports scribes covering the biggest Asian Games ever don’t have to dig deep into their own pockets just to surf the internet and browse on the pages of their respective newspapers back home.
It’s because the KT Telecom Center just outside the main press working area is offering its services free. All you have to do is line up, wait for your turn, and see the world through the internet.
But of course, there’s always the inconsiderate ones who’d treat the computer as if its their own. One day, a Filipino scribe representing a major daily had a kimchi-hot encounter with a foreign journalist who held on to one of the two computers for more than an hour.
Running out of patience, the Filipino scribe got up the couch, banged his hand on the computer table and turned his back on the guy who was totally surprised but looked as if he didn’t even know what was going on.
First-come, first-served, he must have said as he shouted back at the Filipino.