Fil-Am golf builds bridges of friendship

By Al S. Mendoza

TODAY is the day before the blast-off of the 62nd Fil-Am Invitational Golf tournament in Baguio City’s Baguio Country Club and Club John Hay.

So, from December 5-10, the men’s regular of the country’s oldest amateur team competition will be staged. (The event’s senior participants are done with their own battles on December 1.)

The Fil-Am Golf event is a much-awaited tournament, not only because it continuously observes the spirit of camaraderie among golfers devoted to the highest tenets of amateur play, but also because it dates back to that golden era when Filipinos and Americans based primarily in Clark forged a lasting friendship through golf that stays aflame to this day.

Some 1,267 players in the field come from various parts of the world, several of them from Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, Okinawa, Australia, the United States and even some parts of Europe.

They are golfers by day and ambassadors of goodwill by night, drinking beer mostly to cement further a bond welded over the years of continued participation in the tournament.

Fil-Am official Shin Paul Chan knows by heart that I’ve been a consistent witness to this beautiful setting as I have been involved in the tournament in more ways than one the last 25 years or so.

I used to merely cover the Fil-Am for various newspapers.  Still do.

But over the last eight years so, my stint in the Fil-Am has taken a new shape.  I have become a Rules Official of the tournament.

It’s a new dimension to my life but one that has given life a new meaning.

To be a referee is actually almost a thankless job, but just the same, it gives me some fulfillment without a price as it affords me the luxury of helping my fellow golfers play the game with fun and utter relaxation.

As a sportswriter covering the Fil-Am, I have built bridges of friendship with golfers coming from many parts of the world.

And, as a Rules official, my list of friends has expanded to virtually cover the scope of the entire universe.

Since Toyota is a major sponsor, staking two Vios models at the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay as hole-in-one prizes, I believe Toyota-Dagupan has put up a team for the competitions under the tutelage of dealership owner Rene So.

That should be a welcome development, one that puts Dagupan City, if not Pangasinan, in the national golf map.

When fellow golfers in Manila and elsewhere learn we have a golf course in Dagupan that allows our ball to have a “preferred lie” all the time, they give me a puzzled look.

But after explaining to them the reason for the preferred lie, they readily break into a smile.

“Yours is a one-of-a-kind golf course, indeed,” they would say next.

It is because our fairways are all sand.  You can only see green at the greens.

But tell me, is it still “preferred lie” in our golf course by the beach?

I can’t wait to play there again.

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