‘Fore a cause, Fore the children’

The iGan Foundation Cup fund raising tournament hosted by popular GMA radio and television newscaster Arnold Clavio was held on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Intramuros Golf Club to help lessen the suffering of children with life-threatening diseases. Clavio organized the foundation after he was moved to action by the stories he covered of these ill children in his TV program Emergency.

Proceeds from Saturday’s tournament were used for the construction of fun centers or Paraiso ng mga iGAN that stand as the children’s shelter and bastion of joy and emotional support in the midst of pain and sickness. And what better way to raise funds for these projects than have fun while playing golf in a short but tricky course made more challenging by having to finish between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. under floodlights.

Clavio, who finished with a journalism degree at the University of Sto. Tomas, started to get curious about golf in 1994 when he first saw the game on TV. He started to wonder how much skill the then leading golfer Nick Faldo needed to send a small ball into that small cylinder dug into the green.

It wasn’t until much later that Jimmy Policarpio, then chief of staff of Senate President Ernie Maceda and Jun “Bote” Bautista, senior reporter of GMA News, were able to influence Clavio to try the game.

Of his days as a beginner, Clavio says, “My first set was a vintage Honma. Yung woods, talagang wood. When it hit a wet fairway, natatanggal yung mga kahoy sa club face so kailangang dalhin sa Makati para mabarnisan muli  (The woods were literally made of wood. The wood parts of the club would fly off the club face so I had to bring the club to Makati where it would be given a new coat of varnish)”. According to Clavio, he bought the set from Policarpio for P20,000 which took him two years to pay.

The first time that Clavio ventured into the fairways was at Villamor. Clavio scored a par during that game, indeed a rarity. His total score was 80 – for the front nine.

Clavio stopped playing in 1998 when he was given an early morning radio program in dzBB. For Clavio it seemed his short golfing career had ended, until he met new friends while doing an episode for Brigada Siete: businessman Gary Vazquez; Barok Urbiztondo, staff of Sen. Tito Sotto, then host of Brigada Siete; and Ricky del Rosario, Quezon City councilor and VIVA Films executive.

The four made up what Clavio called his regular “plight” (flight) that would play every Saturday morning at Capitol. Clavio would later claim that Vazquez, Urbiztondo and Del Rosario served as his teaching pros.”They would allow me to hit a second ball, a mulligan, if my first shot “went against the grass” or if I had a butterfly.

During one of those Saturdays, Urbiztondo suggested that Clavio put up a foundation that will help less fortunate children. Urbiztondo said, “You (Clavio) will just squander your popularity if you don’t use it to help your fellowmen.” And before Urbiztondo died of liver cancer, Clavio promised to pursue the idea.

With the help of Vazquez and others who had a hand in his formative years in radio and TV like Atty. Felipe Gozon, president and CEO of GMA; Atty. Jimmy Duavit, EVP of GMA; Patricia Go of Universal Robina Corp.; Rey David of Great Wall Advertising; and Bo Sanchez of Kerygma and Light of Jesus Community, Clavio formed Igan ng Pilipinas Foundation.

The foundation’s first major project was a fund raiser in 2002 called the Igan Cup (“Fore a Cause, Fore the Children”) held on Clavio’s birthday, Nov. 2. Proceeds of the tournament were used to construct the Paraiso ng mga Igan Fun Center at the Quezon City Medical Hospital and to support the bone marrow transplant of Nicole Figueroa, a leukemia victim.

Proceeds from succeeding iGAN Cups held at Eastridge and Wack Wack helped build another “Paraiso” at the Tondo Medical Center in 2005. This year’s Cup was held for the benefit of both a “Paraiso” in Quirino Medical Center and the second Araw ng mga Nguso medical mission. A celebrity badminton challenge is being planned to finance other projects.

Like many other typical golf groups, Clavio and his buddies, now including  fellow-broadcasters Orly Trinidad (dzBB) and Ely Zaludar (dzXL), sample different courses year round like Aguinaldo, Eastridge, Veteran’s, Wack Wack, Luisita, Highlands and Midlands, Splendido, Country Club, Mimosa, Ayala Greenfields, Northwoods and Southwoods. Clavio says the group enjoys friendly bets but more important, he needs the exercise to lower his sugar count and stay healthy.