Trent Jones had role in EDSA People Power

RIO DE JANEIRO – It’s not easy to recognize the man who had helped designed countless golf courses around the world, and a handful in the Philippines, at the Olympic Golf Center Thursday.

But out on the fringes of the brand-new Brazilian layout was Robert Trent Jones Jr., who runs a special kind of friendship with Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco.

The POC chief hosted dinner in a popular Brazilian restaurant for Trent Jones Jr. and her female companion Thursday.

Out on the course, earlier in the day, the golf designer took slow steps trying to see how Filipino golfer Miguel Tabuena was doing.

Told that the 21-year-old Filipino was like two-under early in the round, he said, “It’s good to see Tabuena doing very good.”

Tabuena, however, could not sustain his hot start, finishing at 73 and 10 shots off the leader.

“Where did he go wrong?” Trent Jones Jr., now 77, asked Filipino scribes.

Then he gingerly walked away – back to the lounge.

Unknown to most Filipinos, the American golf course architect played a key role in the 1986 People Power, bridging the key personalities behind the revolution and US administration officials.

“He was providing information for both groups and it proved to be a key to the Edsa Revolution,” said POC vice president Jose Romasanta.

“Jones had privately lobbied for regime change in the Philippines while playing golf with Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, US Secretary of State George Schultz and other senior officials in both the (Ronald) Reagan and (Jimmy) Carter administrations,” wrote Carmen N. Pedrosa for The STAR way back in 2005.

“Actually, he was part of the Edsa revolution,” said Romasanta.

Not too many people know that.