Glam on the Greens
Good morning golfers. Good morning everyone. I have plenty of things to say today. Let us start with where I was last week. I was in Baguio City, our country’s summer capital. Home of fresh strawberries, home of ube jam and peanut brittle, and recently, dengue mosquitoes made it its home, as well. Yikes. I hope things will get better for the city which I love very much.
Glam on the Greens. This is the theme of the 11th PAL Ladies Interclub Golf Tournament this year, scheduled on October 4 – 7 at Camp John Hay. As of the moment, there are 28 ladies golf teams participating, including ones coming from Australia and Port Moresby. They had their first team captains’ meeting last week in Baguio.
Teams from Davao: Mimi Siason is the team captain of Apo Golf & Country Club. Stella Barnes is the team captain of Davao City Golf Club. Jean Gotianse is the team captain of Rancho Palos Verdes Golf & CC. Jean G. was not around during the team captain’s meeting. I guess someone else was there to represent their club.
So, that’s that. We are looking forward to the 11th PAL Ladies Interclub. Will start practicing soon.
Next topic: The PGA Championship. As you know, this is the final major tournament of the PGA Tour. It is usually held around the 3rd week of August before Labor Day Weekend, but because of this year’s Olympics, they moved the tournament to this week. So, for the early risers, it is happening now, LIVE. I will be cheering for my usual players.
Goodluck, Jason Day! By the way, Jason Day is the defending champion. Let’s cheer for our half-Pinoy, half Aussie bet. The problem is—he got sick recently, got his illness from his kids, and he is still in the recovery stage. I hope he is well enough to defend his title. So proud that he holds the title of World No. 1 in golf – a half pinoy! Clap! Clap!
Next topic: Golf at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The venue is at Olympic Golf Course, Reserva de Marapendi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Men’s schedule is on August 1114. Women’s schedule is on August 17-20. There will be 60 men and 60 women from the 41 participating nations.
FYI, the last time golf was part of the Olympics was in 1904. After more than a hundred years, they decided to bring it back. Goodie! More golf competition to look forward to. Yes, yes, I know what your next question is—‘meron ba mga pinoy golfers mag join?’
There were two from the Philippines in the men’s category. Miguel Tabuena and Angelo Que. However, I read on the net that Angelo Que is skipping the Olympics because of his concern over the deadly zika virus.
In the women’s category, Dottie Ardina also qualified, however, she ‘declared herself unable to compete due to Zika virus threat.’
We will not be seeing Jason Day and Adam Scott in this year’s Summer Golf Olympics as they are among the players who removed themselves from possible qualification, due to Zika virus too, I guess.
The ones joining— Bubba Watson, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, and more. Miguel Tabuena is 37th out of the 60. He will have a grand time in that competition. Good Luck Miguel Tabuena!
In the ladies category, my favorite, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, is also joining.
So, what is this Zika Virus? Wikipedia says, ‘Zika virus is related to dengue. The illness it causes is similar to a mild form of dengue fever; is treated by rest, and cannot yet be prevented by drugs or vaccines.’ Also, it is ‘transmitted by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes.’—similar to dengue, right? Lastly, ‘its name comes from the Zika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947.’