TCC Razon Invitational

Written: January 28, 2011

After the conclusion of the Philippine Open in mid-December of last year, my eyes were set on this one event: The TCC Razon Invitational.  Along with the Philippine Open, I would consider the TCC Razon Invitational as one of the two majors on the Philippine Golf Tour.  This tournament is the richest local event in the Philippines featuring a winner's prize of P1.4 million (appx $32,000) while most of the season's events give out P200,000 for winners.  You could see why this is a big one.  It's comparable to the Fed Ex Cup finale of the PGA Tour where winners of events normally take home 1 million dollars for a win but win the Fed Ex Cup at season's end, and you'll take home a whopping 10 million dollars!

I've played against and met all the big names in Philippine Golf before but its the first time they've all come out together for this event.  The likes of Frankie Minoza who will be a Champions Tour member for 2011, Angelo Que, Juvic Pagunsan, Mars Pucay, Tony Lascuna, Jay Bayron, Cassius Casas are among the few elites in the field.

Coach Cassius and I prepared for this event as far back as before the new year, playing almost everyday in TCC working on swing changes and getting our groove.  By the time the tournament came along and after a good showing with my Tita Bernie in the Pro-Am, I felt ready despite playing with a recent change in my grip.

Needless to say, that preparation didn't seem to translate into a solid showing as I ballooned (that's an understatement) to a 19 over par round of 89.  In the perfect storm of weather and screw ups, and back luck, that round would come down as my highest competitive round since my junior golf days.  Not to make any excuses, but there were also some very accomplished pros that were close to my score.  It was one of the most difficult conditions I have ever played in, excluding the freezing conditions I remember playing in my college days. 

On the second round, which I knew would be my final round since I would be missing the cut, I didn't feel like I did anything different.  I continued to nurse my new grip, approached the day the same way, although probably not in the best mood after what just happened the day before.  And just like that, I turned in a 69, 20 shots better than the previous day.  Not as if the conditions were any easier than the day before.  The wind was howling to the point where a stand bag wouldn't even stay up because of how strong the wind was.  Yet as if I hadn't shot an 89 the previous day, I turned it around to have the 2nd best score of the day behind only Juvic Pagunsan's 68.  Jokingly as I was playing the 2nd round and finally got things going, Coach Cassius, my playing partner said, "Yan ang Carl Ocampo na kilala ko! (That's the Carl Ocampo who I know!) Kahapon, si Dr. Ocampo yata ang naglalaro (Yesterday, it looked like your dad playing)

What changed from the day before? It's a question that I got from several people including Mr. Ricky Razon.  In peculiar rounds like those, I believe that before moving on, you must analyze what happened.  Looking back, it was simply a combination of the wind, bad luck, and some bad swings.  Like in those Bell Shaped curves you learn back in statistics class for those who remember,  that round would be in the far tip of the spectrum. An outlier shall we say.  Didn’t even fall inside the 99.7% confidence interval.  I hope I’m still using my math terms correctly.

Overall, the week was a humbling experience.  I left very upset to say the least.  Having been here in the Philippines and having played several of these pro tournaments, I was very comfortable in this atmosphere.  I had put so much effort in the weeks leading up to the tournament that my psyche made me believe that I was bound for guaranteed success.  Despite my successes in recent tournaments, the sport has a way of reminding you that you can never own golf, you can only borrow it at times.  If golf were easy, then based on the effort all of us pros and pro hopefuls put in, we’d all be making millions of dollars. 

Moving forward, I must remind myself of my long-term path to improvement and surely there will be bumps along the way.  Bob Rotella says it best in his book The Golf of Your Dreams, “If you want to improve your golf game, you have to accept long periods when your efforts can seem wasted, when your scores don’t reflect the effort you’re putting in.  These are the times that patience and perseverance will be the most important traits you can have.” 

So there you have it. Along we go on the journey. Still marching on!

Caddy for the week Myleen

There it is

Brent, Champions Tour Player Frankie Minoza, and me

Final Round Scores

TCC Razon Pro-Am

My Tita (Aunt) Bernie recapped it best in her e-mail to the family along with photos.  
Here's what she wrote and the photos she posted:

Dear All, 

Carl and I were partners in the Pro Am tournament today in The Country Club with Carl playing as my pro partner even though he's still an amateur.  Great partnership and more importantly, we had fun.  In our flight was Chito Buenaventura and his pro partner Rolando Marabe who was having difficulty with the fast greens.  Carl made 5 birdies I think but with 4 bogeys to end up 1 under gross. Great score in the windy conditions.  We ended with a 65 (7 under) best ball but the winning score was 61 (11 under) so we were just 11th place.  Not bad from a field of 48.  Toby and partner Joel Opaco were at 36th place.  

Winner was Miguel Tabuena, an amateur playing in the pro division and the amateur was Sheryl Villavicencio, one of the girls in the ICTSI training pool with Carl.  It was she who shot 4 under gross with a 7 handicap, so she alone did 11 under!  Since Miguel Tabuena is an amateur, he couldn't win the P80,000 cash prize so he just had a trophy while the girl got an IPAD 16GB 3G, an iPhone 4 and a Technomarine watch for her win.

Carl and I started really hot with a birdie-birdie-birdie on the first 3 holes, with Carl's 2 natural birdies and my 1 net birdie but we couldn't seem to keep it going.

Carl says he's not going back to the U.S. anymore with tournaments like these here!

Dading and I and maybe Yeyo plan to go on Saturday to watch Carl.  We would've gone on the last day Sunday except that we have the Enrile reunion. 

Table holding the amateurs prizes and raffle prizes.  Grand raffle prize of the Samsung LED 40" 4D Tv with Blue Ray DVD and a pair of the special glasses used to watch 4D TV was won buy Temiong Murakami.  Other prizes were the new Mac Air, Iphone 4, Blackberry, iPad and Toshiba Libretto Dual screen laptop and Technomarine watch.

Carl says he wants to be standing there next year. These were the winners from the different legs of the ICTSI tournaments in 2010. Among them 2nd from left, Cassius Casas, Angelo Que, Jay Bayron, sponsor Ricky Razon, Juvic Pagunsan, Marvin Dumandan, Mars Pucay and Benjie Magada.

Playing Partners Rolando, Bernie, Carl, and Chito Buenaventura

11th Place Finish at the Pro-Am

Tentative Tournament Schedule

Here in the Philippines, nothing is for certain even until a couple days before the event.
I'd like to share with you my golf tournament schedule for the next couple weeks:

• January 19 and 22, 2011: Sta. Elena Cup (Amateur Fun Tournament)
• January 27-30, 2011: TCC Razon Invitational (Major Pro Tournament)
• February 8-11, 2011: DHL Amateur Open (Serious Amateur Tournament)
• February 17, 2011: Mizuno Dream Cup Final Qualifier (Win this, and all expense paid trip to a big amateur event in Japan)
• February 23-26, 2011: PAL Interclub (10 man team event. Fun tournament but the people here seem to live and die over this event)
• March 4-6, 2011: TCC Yulo Cup (Invited by my Tita (aunt) Bernie, another one of those fun member-guest tournaments.)

So there it is! For the first quarter of 2011, not particularly a busy schedule with "high powered serious big time tournament atmosphere events" but just enough to keep the competitive juices flowing.

To my knowledge, the pro events in the Philippines and the Mercedes Benz ASEAN Tour will start coming in bunches beginning in the last week of March.  

I'll post the PGT (Philippine Golf Tour) schedule once I find their new website.  

Sta. Elena Cup Final Round and Awarding

Written: January 23, 2010

            I just came from the Sta. Elena Cup awarding tonight.  The tournament was a 2 day member guest event in which I was invited by fellow Notre Dame grad Clifford Lichaytoo.  Although we would have liked to play better, we enjoyed our two days of golf on Wednesday and Saturday playing along side Clifford’s friends.  On the 2^nd round Saturday, Cliff, a 7 handicap, shot a 76 while I shot an even par 72 off a zero handicap. 

            All the while, we were really after the hole in one prizes which was a Lexus IS 300 selling for appx P3 million here. It’s the beautiful small sports sedan that everyone in the field was after.  In fact, two people did it! However, since they made a hole-in-one on the same hole, they had to split the prize in however way they wished.  Maybe one would buy the car from the other or they would both sell it and pocket the money.  Either way, they came out 1.5 million pesos richer.  Lucky ones.

            Then there was the raffle: 10 iPads and about 10 other prizes worth over P100k like Omega watches and video cameras.  Our names weren’t called.  Where we did win out was the buffet everyone got to enjoy.  Eat all you can steaks, chicken, seafood, fruits, desserts. You name it!  Overall, it was a fun evening to network, meet new people and also see familiar faces, some I haven’t seen in years.  And on a side note, I’d be the last person to dance but this time, I went up on the dance floor and partnered with a D.I. and we danced to swing.  Gotta give credit to those Wednesday dance sessions Coach Bong has at our team house. Thanks!  I always try welcome learning new skills, especially those that I’m most uncomfortable with.           

A five minute drive home and I’m back in Montecito, ready for tomorrow’s practice round as the PGT Tour finds itself in our backyard at the year’s first tournament and major: the TCC Razon Invitational Jan. 27-30.

Sta. Elena Awards Night

Group pic with the random model girl as seen in every one of these kinds of tournaments

Holiday Season Recap and Sta. Elena Cup

Written: January 19, 2011

            I realize it has been close to a month since my last blog.  A lot has happened since then.  Right after the Philippine Open ended, my parents came a few days later on Dec 20, 2011.  It was a treat to have them and my brother here over the holidays, along with both sets of grandparents, it made for one of the most complete family Christmas get togethers in recent years.  My parents were here from Dec 20-31^st.  During that time, I was able to show my dad a glimpse of my life as I toured him around the ICTSI golfer training house in Montecito and had him watch Coach Cassius, Marcel and I play in our pastime playground The Country Club.  My little bro Casey had quite the vacation too.  He got to play baseball the first couple days of the trip in Alabang against highschoolers and college players, basketball with Marcel, go karting in ParkSquare, and one of his highlights, I brought him out to a bar with my friends.  There’s something about Casey that he enjoys being with older people.  Makes him feel cool or something like that.  At least he enjoys the company of my friends and thinks their all beasts.  It makes him look up to me even more. Haha.  Here in the Philippines, the Christmas season goes throughout the month of December.  With Christmas parties galore, you’ll definitely be stuffing your tummy up.  We attended lots of those.  From mom’s side and dad’s side to highschool friends, golf friends, friends of friends, 2^nd cousins… There was a party for every group and by the end of it all, you would have felt like you’ve joined an eating contest.  One of our highlights during the family’s stay was our visit to Fort Santiago / Intramuros where we went through a 3 hour tour with the most entertaining tour guide I’ve ever come across, Carlos Celdran as he took us through the Philippine’s history beginning with the Spanish colonization all the way to the present.

            A comment I received from a friend who glanced through my blog was that all I wrote about was golf and some of the terms she couldn’t understand and she eventually got bored.  From now on, I’ll make it a point to write about things more than golf even though this blog was intended for recapping my golfing experiences hence the title of the blog: Living the Dream.  The title implies: Living the (Golfing) Dream.  Then again, perhaps I could expand on more than just the golf and write about everyday experiences.  For those friends and family reading this blog who aren’t in the Philippines, would you appreciate it if I write a little about what I observe and experience in everyday life? Alright, I’ll be making an effort to write about things outside of golf just for the heck of it.  As much as I hated those writing assignments in highschool and in college, I somehow miss them.  Writing blog entries could serve as a personal homework to give myself since there’s no longer a professor to demand them.

            Anyway, the only reason I started writing this blog entry was to talk about my round today at the Sta. Elena Cup but before I could write about it, my friend’s comment crossed my mind that all I’ve ever written was about golf.  So I kinda wanted to open with those two paragraphs of rather non-golfing related subjects.  At this point, all I could say is that I shot a nonchalant round of 71 1 under par. 3 birdies 2 bogeys. It sounds good but from the blue tees? Give me a break. I could do much better than that.  My partner Clifford Lichaytoo, fellow Notre Dame graduate, shot an 86 which is above his handicap of 7.  Looks like we’ll just have to make up some ground on day two which isn’t for another 3 days.  We play again on Saturday morning.  Hopefully I’ll be able to dial those short irons in by then and post 8 birdies as I did in practice a few days ago.  Goodnight everyone!

Philippine Open Final 2 Rounds

Written: December 23, 2010

            Hey ya’ll!  A few days have passed since the completion of the Philippine Open.  I wasn’t quite in the mood to write about the ending of the final round on Saturday, (Dec. 18) after going double bogey, bogey, bogey to finish at +3 for the tournament in 72 holes.  Apart from that, the whole tournament was actually a great experience.  Playing in my first Philippine Open, my game was solid for most of the tournament. The first two rounds of 71-73 put me in position for the final two rounds as I was only 6 off the lead.

            On the third round, I got the opportunity to play with two of my past idols: Robert Pactolerin and Artemio Murakami, both of whom are very accomplished players on the pro circuit.  For the most part, I held my own against the two and managed to creep up a few spots on the leaderboard with a one under 71 but not in the fashion they did as Temyo shot 65 and Pacto shot 69.  It was definitely a worthwhile experience and an entertaining group to watch as noted by Tito Dading and Tito Yeyo who came out to watch the entire round.

             Starting the day 13^th place and just one outside the top 10, I knew I had another chance not really to win but sneak up a good finish.  Signs of a strong finish quickly escalated after having my best warm up session of all the days.  However as we know in golf, warm up sessions whether excellent or poor, have little direct effect on scores.  Either way, it gave me a lot more confidence heading onto the first tee.  With a solid drive and a par to start it off, I thought things were going to be perfect.  However, immediately on the second hole, luck turned against me when my ball hit a tree off the tee and bounced 50 yards back and left deep into the woods.  That resulted in a triple bogey.  Yet for some reason, maturity perhaps as some would call it, I did not get upset.  I stayed confident knowing that as good as I was hitting it that day, I would easily get it back to even par.  By the 12^th hole, I made my third birdie to get back to even par.  Then, the last three holes of the tournament came along and one little mistake after the other saw me limping home: Double Bogey, Bogey, Bogey. Ouch. I finished the round with 76.

            4 Day total: 71-73-71-76=291, 3 over par.  Artemio Murakami took home the trophy shooting weekend rounds of 65-68.  That’s the way to finish a tournament!

            My total may have dropped me down probably between 20^th and 30^th place. Oh well, finishes like that are sometimes unavoidable. Just gotta be ready to bounce back when the opportunity comes knocking again.

            So much to look forward to for the holidays! Time with the family (they came home Dec 20^th and are staying ‘till Dec 31^st) for the most part.  ‘Till next year, take care! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hotel Room for a night

Swinging away on the 9th

3rd Round playing with Murakami

Tonyt Fernando, played with him on the last round 

Pactolerin 

Tito Yeyo and Tito Dading came out to watch

Ton, Me, and Brent

3rd round scores

Super helpful the entire week: Nilo

Final Round, crowd gathering around the 18th

Philippine Open 2nd Round

Written: December 16, 2010

            It was an early start to the day. Good thing I slept with the team in the hotel close to the golf course.  It was a 7am tee time off number 10 with the same group: Joel Opaco and Raymund Sangil.  I’ll characterize this day as a stroll in the park because it was a much more relaxing and even-keel round.  To start off, I made par on the first 7 holes of the day with a couple nice up and downs from around the green.  Then on 8, I caught a bad break as I pulled my drive left into the trees only to have it hit the cart path and bounce straight into the water.  That led to my first bogey of the day.  For the next 4 holes, I would make great par saves from the trees and around the green.  1 over par through 12, but a bogey on the 4^th hole, (13^th of the day) with a three putt from long range.  Then on the 5^th, another bad break when my lay up with a 5 iron started out right and nestled right behind the lone tree in the right rough.  Both unable to get it on the green and unable to get it up and down led to a bogey.  3 over through 14.  Then on the very next hole, I found my swing with a solid tee shot and second shot and a putt for birdie from 25 feet away that dropped.  On the very next hole, a perfect drive and a 5 iron from 202 yards to about 12 feet setting up an eagle opportunity.  Unfortunately, I would miss but it still led to a birdie.  Pars on the final two holes and I was in with a 73, even par for the tournament putting me just 6 shots off leader Tonton Asistio coming into tomorrow’s 3^rd round. Tomorrow, I’ll just have to keep playing my game and stay positive throughout.  The ball striking, as the week has progressed, it slowly getting better and better. With some of my uncles coming out to watch tomorrow, that might just be the boost I need to light it up.