Clubs urged to help develop junior golf

Manila, Philippines - The National Golf Association of the Philippines has urged member clubs to help develop golf by allowing jungolfers and young players to play in the respective clubs even if they are not members or accompanied by members.

In the NGAP annual council meeting at the Phil. Navy Golf Club last Tuesday, the country’s governing body for golf reiterated its desire to further boost the country’s golf program by identifying talents through a series of nationwide tournaments.

“We urged our member clubs to help develop golf, particularly the jungolfers, by allowing them to play in their club even if not members/accompanied by members just like at Wack Wack and Valley Golf,” said NGAP president Leandro Mendoza. “That’s why regional tournaments were conducted to scout or discover jungolfers, including caddies, with potentials.”

He also commended his colleagues in the NGAP board for their continued support to the revival of the Mindanao and Visayan regional events whose objective is to identify potential talents in the provinces and eventually bring them to Metro Manila.

Mendoza also cited the feats abroad by the country’s leading jungolfers, including Dottie Ardina, who made history by winning the individual crown in the recent Queen Sirikit Cup where she beat the best golfers in Asia, including the world-class Koreans.

“I would like to extend my congratulations to these young achievers and look forward to their continued success in the future international competitions,” said Mendoza, who also mentioned Miguel Tabuena’s silver medal finish in the last Asian Games and the victory by the junior team of Jobim Carlos, Clyde Mondilla, Miggy Yee, Andres Saldana in the Lion City Cup of the Putra Cup competitions.

In the matter of course rating and handicapping, Mendoza said the NGAP is now putting extra effort to come up with a more state-of-the-art computerized handicapping system and again emphasized to the local golfing community that the NGAP is the sole entity in the Philippines that is authorized by the USGA to issue course/slope ratings and handicap indeces correspondingly.

“NGAP sec-gen Jun Arceo has been making representations for the NGAP with the Federation of Golf Clubs in the Phils. to come up with a unified handicapping system for the good of golf in the country,” said Mendoza.

“Golf in the Philippines should be free from any form of politics or factionalism. Should the NGAP need to bend over backward in order to attain a unified stature for golf in the country, it will have no second thoughts in doing so,” said Arceo.

To update the NGAP on the latest rules and rules officiating the golf body also sent NGAP director Bong Vilchez and Jack Imperial to the R&A Rules seminars in Bali, Indonesia and Guangzhou, China, respectively.

Mendoza also lauded Phl golf’s chief backers for their all-out support to help develop the sport, including the International Container Terminal Services, Inc., Pancake House, SOC Land, and Del Monte Golf Club, Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club and Riviera Golf Club, which supported the staging of the 2011 Philippine Amateur Golf Championship and regional events recently.

Meanwhile, the NGAP’s next major event is the ICTSI-Philippine Open, slated May 12-15 at Wack Wack’s East course with Asia’s leading campaigners and rising stars slugging it out with the country’s best shotmakers.

Also on tap is the Philippine Junior Golf Championships on May 16-22 at the Alabang Country Club and the Philippine Amateur Match Play Golf Championship at Wack Wack on May 30-June 5.

All in all, the NGAP has successfully added a total of four tournaments in its calendar of activities for the year. “We look forward to adding more in the future,” said Tommy Manotoc, NGAP chair for national team development.