Coral Invitational and LJ Go's ace

CEBU - Despite the terrible traffic situation, which the CITOM doesn’t seem to know how to address every Sinulog celebration, many of us still look forward to this week for the fun and festivity.

One of the annual events every Sinulog week is the Coral Invitational, which many refer to as the Coral Tee.

This year, Cebu Country Club is holding the 28th edition of the tournament and although I haven’t been there lately, there remains to be many players from out of town who come here to take part in the event.

After a few years of absence I am again playing this year as the partner of my compadre Renato ‘Oly’ S. Dychangco.

This wasn’t in my plans for the week, which includes staying home during the grand parade to avoid the traffic, but I can’t say no to Oly. 

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Jovi Neri told me yesterday to check the Multiply page of Cebu Country Club Jungolf, which had something about a hole-in-one made by Lloyd Jefferson ‘LJ’ Go.

LJ aced hole number 15 of Cebu Country Club last Saturday barely a week after he was named a member of the club’s team for the Philippine Airlines Interclub set late next month in Davao City.

According to Jovi the hole was about 160 yards that day and LJ, who was then exactly 13 years and 243 days old, used a Taylor Made R7 XR 8-iron and a Titleist Pro V 392 No. 7 ball.

He was in the company of Jovi, Toby Florendo, Macky Michael and my favorite golfing vice mayor, Nino Bascon of San Remigio.

Congratulations LJ and I hope you’ll have many more aces to come.

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The members of the Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) are not only eager to write about events, but also participate.

This Saturday, more than 10 SAC members have signified intention to join the 5-K run of the Sinulog Half Marathon. There are some like our president and my cousin John Pages along with the running Raffys (Uytiepo and Osumo) of The Freeman, who will be taking part in the 21-K event.

I hope you guys and gals would enjoy the race as much as you enjoy writing about it. 

This is the reason why sportswriters have a lot of fun, we don’t just write about the events, but can also take part in them. That explains my career choice and I am thankful that my family has been very understanding.

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MILESTONES: Belated birthday greetings to Atty. Marigold Zaballero of McMedia Inc., who turned a year older last Monday.

Happy birthday to Atty. Vicente E. Fernandez II, our president in the Philippine Amateur Judo Association (PAJA) Cebu Chapter and a long-time buddy, who turns a year older today.

Congratulations to our editor-in-chief Jerry S. Tundag from the Compostela side of the Cabadiangan River, who was named as one of the outstanding citizens of the town.

More power to all of you! (THE FREEMAN)