Fair Play: Three trees and a green monster
LAST Tuesday, I saw for myself the Green Monster that is Hole 15 at the Mactan Island Golf Club.
I’ve only been in four courses—Bacolod’s Binitin, Alta Vista, Kalsangi and Mactan—but I think it’s safe to say that that Par 3 is one of the most difficult holes anywhere.
It’s only a 150 or so yards, a distance most of the weekend players can reach with their eyes closed. Though golf is all about hitting a ball from point A to point B, it’s not all about hitting a ball.
I guess, you can compare it to hitting a free throw.
Making one in practice, with nobody but yourself on court, is as easy as ABC. But if you get two in a game, with only one second left and with your team trailing by two, your mind starts playing tricks with you and you’ll be lucky to make one.
Hole 15 is like making a free throw from 80 feet. And you only get one shot.
Retired Brig. Gen. Rodante Joya, Mactan’s amiable GM who was giving us a tour, said on average, only 30 percent of the players in a flight hit the green and that the
most-abused spot in the Par 72 course is the mandatory drop area in Hole 15.
True enough, he was on the spot in the two flights I saw that day.
Gen. Joya took a shot and missed, and the Freeman’s Nimrod Quiñones missed his first attempt. He gave it another go and this time, the ball landed less than 15 feet from the cup.
And while we were practicing to chip from the drop area, another flight came in and two of three hit the water.
It is that tough.
I didn’t even dare to hold a club near the tee mound at 15. I mean, what’s the use?
Gen. Joya also recalled the tale of one drunk American tourist who tried to save his friend’s ball from going to the drink, and instead landed in the water.
The guy, who was drinking beer while playing golf, tried to catch an errant shot in the green like a baseball…
In the previous three courses I’ve seen, it’s only in Mactan that I saw a huge tree, right in the middle of the fairways.
Gen. Joya said the trees have long been there before there was a golf course and moving them, just to make the fairways more open, doesn’t seem right.
So the three trees are stuck, looking like guardians of the fairway.
They may not have moved the trees but what Mactan did was move tons of the foulest-smelling garbage you can ever imagine, to extend hole 13, or what I call the Garbage Green.
When we got there, there wasn’t even a hint of the foul smell.
Aside from moving the garbage, Mactan is also widening a few of the lakes, which according to Gen. Joya, is the course’s signature.
And because each lake needs water, lots and lots of it, the general is also planning to put up a water treatment facility that will turn Mepza’s bacteria-filled ooze into one that’s fit to water the plants.
In explaining all the improvements, Gen. Joya told me at the start of the tour that he believes “The biggest room in the world, is the room for improvement.”
And that’s why, the Mactan Island Golf Club is in capable hands.
EGO TRIP. Astar from Indonesia, posted this comment online on my column “There’s always a next time.”
You have such a big heart. Persistent and hard work will bring you there. Since I won’t be going to South Africa either, it would be nice to watch it from television —together with our friends and or family. What matters is the togetherness, sportivity and positive attitude, like what you’ve shown through the above article. You have written great articles, by the way....
My deepest gratitude Astar. Who knows? The next time I’ll be writing about the World Cup, it would be when your country hosts it.
I’ve only been in four courses—Bacolod’s Binitin, Alta Vista, Kalsangi and Mactan—but I think it’s safe to say that that Par 3 is one of the most difficult holes anywhere.
It’s only a 150 or so yards, a distance most of the weekend players can reach with their eyes closed. Though golf is all about hitting a ball from point A to point B, it’s not all about hitting a ball.
I guess, you can compare it to hitting a free throw.
Making one in practice, with nobody but yourself on court, is as easy as ABC. But if you get two in a game, with only one second left and with your team trailing by two, your mind starts playing tricks with you and you’ll be lucky to make one.
Hole 15 is like making a free throw from 80 feet. And you only get one shot.
Retired Brig. Gen. Rodante Joya, Mactan’s amiable GM who was giving us a tour, said on average, only 30 percent of the players in a flight hit the green and that the
most-abused spot in the Par 72 course is the mandatory drop area in Hole 15.
True enough, he was on the spot in the two flights I saw that day.
Gen. Joya took a shot and missed, and the Freeman’s Nimrod Quiñones missed his first attempt. He gave it another go and this time, the ball landed less than 15 feet from the cup.
And while we were practicing to chip from the drop area, another flight came in and two of three hit the water.
It is that tough.
I didn’t even dare to hold a club near the tee mound at 15. I mean, what’s the use?
Gen. Joya also recalled the tale of one drunk American tourist who tried to save his friend’s ball from going to the drink, and instead landed in the water.
The guy, who was drinking beer while playing golf, tried to catch an errant shot in the green like a baseball…
In the previous three courses I’ve seen, it’s only in Mactan that I saw a huge tree, right in the middle of the fairways.
Gen. Joya said the trees have long been there before there was a golf course and moving them, just to make the fairways more open, doesn’t seem right.
So the three trees are stuck, looking like guardians of the fairway.
They may not have moved the trees but what Mactan did was move tons of the foulest-smelling garbage you can ever imagine, to extend hole 13, or what I call the Garbage Green.
When we got there, there wasn’t even a hint of the foul smell.
Aside from moving the garbage, Mactan is also widening a few of the lakes, which according to Gen. Joya, is the course’s signature.
And because each lake needs water, lots and lots of it, the general is also planning to put up a water treatment facility that will turn Mepza’s bacteria-filled ooze into one that’s fit to water the plants.
In explaining all the improvements, Gen. Joya told me at the start of the tour that he believes “The biggest room in the world, is the room for improvement.”
And that’s why, the Mactan Island Golf Club is in capable hands.
EGO TRIP. Astar from Indonesia, posted this comment online on my column “There’s always a next time.”
You have such a big heart. Persistent and hard work will bring you there. Since I won’t be going to South Africa either, it would be nice to watch it from television —together with our friends and or family. What matters is the togetherness, sportivity and positive attitude, like what you’ve shown through the above article. You have written great articles, by the way....
My deepest gratitude Astar. Who knows? The next time I’ll be writing about the World Cup, it would be when your country hosts it.
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