The View Invitational

Alta Vista Golf and Country Club's signature event will take place next week - The View Invitational 2006.

This is the annual member-guest tournament of the club, which was first held in 1999 and has since then evolved into one of the events that the local golf community looks forward to every year.

The tournament also serves as the anniversary event of the club, which opened its full 18 holes on June 1997.

It was only last year when the organizers reset the event to June instead of July, which was the tradition in the past years. Many do not know this, but the real reason why The View used to be held every July was that the organizers of the first event needed more time to prepare and the succeeding organizers decided to just follow the schedule.

Last year, the organizers made the adjustment to really make The View the anniversary event for the members and their guests, who sometimes come from other parts of the world.

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The name View Invitational came about because of the great view that the club offers to the players.

The view that Alta Vista offers is also one of the reasons why many visitors to Cebu look forward to playing in the course when they are in Cebu. They do this even if they know that it will require you to carry lots of balls in your bag to finish the round if you are a beginner of a high handicapper.

Some low handicappers even lose a lot of balls on a bad day with all the ravines featured in the course designed by the Black Knight Design Company of Gary Player.

A few years ago I played with a couple of Americans, who were about to head home after serving their church in Cebu for several months. One of them was a scratch player, who has not played for two years when he served their church.

The guy could surely hit long, but unfortunately, we did not bring enough balls for that round when his shots started finding all the wrong places.

Thanks to some helpful staff who bought us balls from the proshop, we were able to finish that round and my guests, I'm sure, had lasting memories of Alta Vista.

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I was informed that as early as the last week of May, the slots for the tournament have been filled up.

Although I haven't touched my golf clubs since late February, I was surprised to receive a call from the club that I had a slot reserved for me as a member of the committee.

This will have to mean having to head to the driving range again to see if I can still hit a ball straight.

What of course would entice players to join are the prizes at stake and the chance to win a windfall if you score an ace.

There would be P500,000, and residential lot, a class A share, a motorcycle, and a roundtrip ticket for a foreign destination at stake for an ace.

There are of course also many raffle prizes that often serve as consolation for those who lose their bets in the course or worse, found their egos badly battered.

Aside from heading back to the driving range, I'll have to buy lots of balls and bring several ball bags to the course during the tournament on June 15 to 18.

This is the reason why I love playing football. It's hard to lose the ball and my ego doesn't get that battered even if I allowed seven goals past me during two penalty shootouts last Sunday.

Failing to stop and attack from an opposing striker from long range is nothing compared to missing an eight-inch putt in golf when we talk of how they bruise your ego.

But these near misses in golf also bring you back to the golf course like you are in a daze hoping to find the answer to your woes. See you at The View Invitational!