Juvic can’t dictate on NGAP — Gopez

Players should never impose their personal will to any national sports association (NSA).

Even if he happens to be of Juvic Pagunsan’s caliber.

The National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) yesterday said it won’t give in to the demands of Pagunsan just for him to don the national colors.

Pagunsan, the country’s top amateur player, recently said he would only play for the RP men’s squad to the Philippine Southeast Asian Games for the last time if Ricky Razon, tasked by the First Gentleman Foundation to stand as golf’s Godfather, would be the one to oversee the training of the team.

"He (Pagunsan) can’t impose his condition on us. I guess maski saan namang NSA hindi dapat ganun," said NGAP head Benny Gopez during his PSA Forum appearance at the Manila Pavilion.

"First, amateur ka lang. Second this is for flag and country. So I don’t see a reason for him to set out any condition," added Gopez.

Besides, the NGAP is the one in-charge of all matters concerning golf in the country and not the sport’s patron itself.

"Wala kaming misunderstanding with Mr. Razon. Our position here is that we are the NSA. We have our own training program and our own schedule. Otherwise, kung ang mga Godfathers ang siyang magpapatakbo, then wala nang relevance pa ang mga NSAs," said Gopez.

He bared that he had a personal meeting with Razon over the weekend and the port services magnate never mentioned anything about the issue.

"I was waiting for him (Razon) to say something about it, pero wala naman siyang sinabi," said Gopez in the same public sports program sponsored by Red Bull, Supermax, Circure and PAGCOR. "All that he stressed is for us to have the best team in the SEA Games."

The NGAP president admitted the 26-year old Pagunsan, the individual gold medal winner in the 2001 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, may be the top player in the amateur ranks today. But being the best doesn’t automatically make one an outright seed to the national team.

"We have basis for choosing players and that is discipline and decorum. You may be the best, but if you don’t have discipline, wala rin," Gopez said.

He stressed there’s nothing personal between him and Pagunsan, not even after the controversial player declared recently that he’s turning pro earlier than planned owing to the shabby treatment he and members of the national team had been getting from the NGAP.

Gopez said that despite the row, the NGAP hadn’t drop Pagunsan yet from the national pool and was scheduled to undergo physical examination Tuesday as part of the nationals’ training program.

The association hopes to finalize the composition of the team at least two weeks before the SEA Games, with the NGAP board, and not Gopez, deciding on the players to be included.

A total of P3 million has been allotted by the FG Foundation to golf and several international stints within the Asian region have been lined up as part of the team’s training and preparations for the biennial meet.

"We’re already eyeing tournaments in Australia and some other parts of the region, although Mr. Razon said he’d like the players to see action in some meets in the US during summer time," added Gopez.