Caddies program hailed

The 2005 Philippine Amateurs just concluded this Saturday.

For a golfer, regardless of age but with a handicap of 10 or below, this would be a tournament worth watching out for. Perhaps not necessarily in terms of joining it, but I am almost sure that its participants and how they fared would be something interesting to read about in the sports page.

The entire national team was in perfect attendance as expected.

Since its format is match play after two rounds of elimination, it may even come as a pleasant surprise to find that a friend or son of an acquaintance made it to the quarterfinals or even the semis.

The tournament is held on a yearly basis and gives all serious golfers a chance to see where their games are as compared to the country’s best.

However, there were two problems this year that made this tournament less wonderful than it could have been.

The first being that it was held during the school year.

I wondered how our young low handicap golfers who look forward to playing alongside our national players could find the time to take a break from their studies to participate in the event.

To begin with, they are the breed of golfers that we would like to encourage to play the sport. (It being such a mental game, preparing for such an event would actually help the golfer become a more disciplined and focused student at school.)

However, having scheduled it this year in September erases his chances of joining and preparing, thus limiting the field to those who play golf for a living, who own their own businesses, or who are out of school youths as the majority of the event’s participants.

Could this perhaps be the reason that that were only 64 male entries and 11 female entries?

The second problem was the golf course itself.

Since this is an event that could help golf officials pick who are to be a part of the national team, the golf course chosen to host it should be comparable to the golf courses where our national team plays overseas.

With all due respect to my friends in the south, the Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club does not come up to this standard. Though it has a tricky and interesting layout, the officials failed to consider if its overall length could be comparable to the courses where international competitions are played.

It does not even come close to that.

Also, the fact that the tournament was held during the rainy months of the year did not make it possible for the organizers of the hosting golf club to condition the course in a way that could meet international standards.

Juvic Pagunsan, as overall winner came as no surprise to many of us as he is, without a doubt, easily the top amateur player in South East Asia today.

What I am sure came as a pleasant revelation to a lot of people, myself included, were the tournament’s daily results as the week progressed.

A golf training program strictly for caddies, conceptualized and started barely eight months ago produced three of the players who qualified after the two-day cut. (Out of 64 players, only the top 32 qualify to join the tournament proper.)

What is even more astounding was what they accomplished after the qualifying rounds. Let us take a look:

En route to finishing third, Mario Labajo eliminated Boyet Zaragoza, member of the national training pool and Artemio Murakami, the number two man in the Philippine team. He then beat JR Tanpinco, another member of the national training pool.

Joseph his brother eliminated Gene Bondoc, another member of the national training pool. In doing so he made the quarters.

Jonel Ababa, another member of the program beat Jay Bayron, the number three man of the National team.

Call it fate or destiny if you like but I believe it is worth noting that all three of them lost to the same player, a two handicapper from Malaysia who eventually lost to Pagunsan, in the finals. Juvic is also an ex-caddy from Bacolod.

"Productive!" would probably be the best and safest way to describe such a program.

It was born simply out of the idea of giving back to the game and all who love to play it.

This translated into the organization of a tournament for the caddies of the different clubs around the country by a gentleman named Tony Arevalo, who was an ex-caddy himself. As the planning progressed, the tournament was later transformed into the National Caddies Open and supported by Wack Wack Golf Club President Ben Abalos and sportsman Hermie Esguerra.

Its top three finishers were given free board and lodging at the Calatagan Golf Club, with the opportunity to play and practice golf everyday for the next 12 months. In exchange, they were to work on their games and on themselves and help around the course that they now call "home" in whatever way management would see fit. i.e. watering the greens etc.

In order not to get too carried away here, we must take note that the tournament was match play and on a good day, it is possible for one to eliminate a much more solid player than he is.

What a week for golf, what a week it was for these three guys!

I’m almost certain that they did not dream of it turning out this way. Being a part of it showed me what determination, hard work and a lot of heart can actually accomplish.