A Round of Golf With Fun and Laughter

In my rehab plan to return to my previous race walking form, I have provided for a series of rest days with some cross training of golf games to break any possible rigid pressure to my blood circulations and built up my upper body strength.

After more than a month of not having played golf, last Saturday 31Jan09, I was able to play a round with my golfing buddies at Valley Golf and Country Club at Antipolo. The group was already complete of the foursome players as I have been regularly absent so I was an extra number for the day. To accommodate me to play with the group, we have to play fivesome players which is only allowed at the Executive Course. The South Course allows only foursome players.


Maybe things turned out better, as to my surprise because of the recent much published incident about De La Paz and Pandaganan encounter, the club has implement a very strict tee time policy for the front and back nine of the South Course. This resulted to a very congested condition at the South Course leaving the Executive Course much faster and convenient to play at.


The Group was composed of MAX CHUA, HENRY GO, MAX DEL ROSARIO, NONOY CARPIO and myself. We started our game at the Executive Course front nine at about 6:45am. We could have started 15 minutes earlier, but, as customary the handicap negotiation took a lot of time involving so much sad stories and arm twisting before we could agree on the handicap for our usual small betting.

I was very intimidated on my first tee shot having not played for quite some time. As expected the first shot was wayward but in all fairness I was able to recover and even made a decent bogey on the 1st hole.

Golf with close friends is a time to let go of your hang-ups, problems, worries, etc., and you take the opportunity to crack jokes and enjoy the company just like small children laughing and making fun of one another. These are not the real part of a proper golf game, but, this is what a RELAX and FUN GOLF is all about. From hole no. 1 until the 18th hole so much fun, stories, and jokes has been shared that the score was not really that important but it was the joy of the company.

However, in the end before going home you still need to account if you did win or lose money from the friendly game. Today, I am so happy to say that I made a little pocket money from my best friend NONOY CARPIO (he is the spice of my life) . Sad to say I will miss him and his family next week for the “Thanksgiving Mass”. His son, CARLO CARPIO just made a “hole in one” last week at the South Course Hole no. 4 using a seven iron. Congratulations! You still owe us dinner!

My front nine score was terrible 16 over par but my back nine was only 8 over for a total of 24 over par. Not really my standard, but, what can you expect with no practise. However, the FUN and LAUGHTER shared cannot be measured. To the group, thank you for a great game. Max Chua was the big winner. We need to reduce your handicap on the next game.