New golf format not for the faint-hearted

KUALA LUMPUR (Via Globe Telecoms) — A team of former caddies, who are rookies in international competitions, will have a lot to prove when they face archrivals Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand when golf competitions start Monday at the Sungai Long golf course.

National coach Iggy Clavecilla, expressed confidence his boys will make a creditable showing here given the breaks of the game, although he would not talk of the Philippines’ gold medal chances.

The Philippine men’s lineup is led by Juvic Pagunsan and includes Jay Bayron, Marvin Dumandan, Gene Bondoc and Jesselito Saragoza. The women’s team is composed of Ruby Chico, Carmelette Villaroman, Heidi Chua and Lucinda Landicho.

Clavecilla said the new format, introduced this year purportedly to give the hosts a big chance for the gold medal, could either be good or bad for the Filipinos.

The first round is a stroke play team competition to decide the seedings in the final round where the format is matchplay.

"Dumandan is fit for matchplay, but Pagunsan and Bayron should excel in both stroke and matchplay because they are more consistent,"said Clavecilla, who said he is wary of the Thais who have been here for over a month and the Malaysians who have played here for the last two years.

Clavecilla said he had practiced the players on the new format and was satisfied with their performance.

"May tsamba ang match play, that’s why the Malaysians adopted this format. Dapat dito lakas ng loob dahil kahit masama ang score mo sa previous round, you can still make up for that with a good score in the next," said Clavecilla. "Kailangan dito iyong fighter, hindi iyong may daga sa dibdib."

"They must prove themselves, or they return to what they used to do," said Clavecilla of the Filipino bets, who have risen from the caddie ranks.

The remark could have been prompted by the flood of criticisms the NGAP had received for its decision to exclude national standout Angelo Que and his subsequent withdrawal from the team afer his close friend Cookie LaO was not considered for a berth.

"The good thing coming for these guys is that they don’t have the superstar mentality. Walang superstar. Kung sasabihin naming bitbitin ang bag, gagawin nila. And that’s good for the discipline of the players," said Clavecilla.

"Maganda ang camaraderie, sila-sila rin ang nagtutulungan," he added.

The nationals have been here since Aug. 27 to familiarize themselves with the course, which boasts of superfast greens and "rough" roughs that could take the wits out of the Philippine amateur golfers who lost to seasoned amateurs in the Canlubang Open back home recently.

And the National Golf Association of the Philippines has already spent close to a million pesos for the additional days they had to be here to make up for their lack of experience.

The Nationals had played four rounds before the golf course, located near the outskirts of the city, was closed to participants starting Saturday to enable groundskeepers to put the par-72 layout in final shape for the competitions.

Clavecilla will determine the composition of his team during the meeting of captains Sunday. — Nelson Beltran