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San Fernando: Golf History in the Philippines
By:
GOLFnTours.com
You
may be an avid golfer who has travelled around in Southeast Asia and played in
most of the known courses on the golf map. However, the chances are you would
not have discovered this little course nestled on the coast facing the Luzon
Sea, just about an hour or so drive west of Baguio City. To call it a
non-descript would unfairly douse the enthusiasm of the many mostly local
golfers who gather every late afternoon for the game; nonetheless it could have
been passed off as just one of the many courses in the Philippines, built during
the time of the American administration and now awaiting either an upgrade, if
fortune has it, or a slow death from neglect and then become completely
overwhelmed when a new and modern course gets built in the vicinity, except that
Wallace Golf Club, the only club in the city of San Fernando, Province of La
Union, is unique!
Built in 1975 primarily for the US Airborne Division stationed here, it is the
only course with sand-green in the entire Philippines! Not to raise undue
expectations, the Wallace course is actually a simple Par 36 2,600-yard course
with Hole#1 starting from the thatched-roof club house some 300 yards away from
the sea and curving along the coast before turning at the lighthouse back
towards the club house. The Signature Hole – one takes the liberty to call it
that - is Hole#4 Par 4 307-yard dog-leg right with a 265-yard straight
hair-clipped by tall trees at the turn before the straight again to landing. Not
exactly a piece of genius in the course design but even if you have the driving
prowess you might still be well tested to make the green in two. Period.
Sipping cool lemon tea on a lazy sunny afternoon and looking over the driving
range and the tee-off for Hole#1, it is hard to imagine anyone who could be
excited over these course technicalities. You either play here or you don’t.
There are no other courses in the vicinity. But not so for Sixto Domenden, the
65 year-old grandpa resident pro, one of the two main architects involved in the
building of Wallace. The other architect was his American Air Force colonel for
whom, he recalled fondly, he often covered during the latter’s secret rendezvous
with his girl-friend.
Way back in Baguio City Sixto began his career in the golf course as a caddy.
But he was no ordinary one unless you consider caddying for the infamously great
President Marcos as an ordinary job on the course. When they first met, Marcos
was only a Congressman. By the time he became President of the Philippines,
Sixto was already firmly his personal caddy. As he noted, Marcos did not change
a bit after becoming the President and that impressed him a lot. It was the
great President who made sure that his golden words of ‘always look back to
where you came from before embarking further in your life’ were firmly imprinted
in the mind of the then young Sixto. For that Sixto remained grateful. Perhaps
the saga of the Marcos’ legacy could have become a little clearer and more
easily resolved if everyone trusted the integrity of the great President as much
as Sixto did: Marcos was a regular mean handicap 8, but his good card scores
were never taken seriously by the media.
When the golden moment for the personal caddy to the President finally arrived,
perhaps as a sign of him taking the President’s words of wisdom in earnest, he
chose to remain in golf instead of accepting a possibly more lucrative job of
position or working abroad. Thus he became the Assistant Director of the Wallace
Golf Club project with his American colonel as the chief.
Apart from the President, he also caddied for dignitaries. Among them was
Singapore’s former Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew who, as he vividly recalled,
would always characteristically look up at the sun, open-mouthed, as if to draw
inspiration from it before proceeding to set-up for the shot. When asked for the
reason, the Prime Minister apparently told him that he drew energy from the act.
One day according to Sixto, President Marcos confided to him that the Prime
Minister was his mentor. However it wasn’t exactly clear that whether such a
ritual of Mr. Lee had in any way decidedly influenced the President to regard
the latter his mentor, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Lee is now, perhaps
coincidentally or as the result of a strange sequence of events or for the
diplomatic golfer in the Prime Minister or the other way round, a Minister
Mentor in the cabinet of the Singapore Government!
Sixto also caddied for the late Dr. Christian
Bernard, the renowned surgeon who performed the first heart implant operation in
1967. He remembered Dr. Bernard as, understandably, being more concerned with
his delicate fingers for surgery than for a more robust grip of fellow
countryman Ernie Els’. But, if there’s a feather in the cap that old Sixto would
gladly anecdote, it would be that he clinic-coached Christina Kim for two months
at the Mimosa Club in Clarke Field. Then, young Kim was preparing to qualify for
the LPGA card. Before going back to South Korea to do her regional qualifying,
she gave Sixto his first ever cell phone for them to stay in touch. As it turned
out according to Sixto, on at least two occasions, young Kim called him during
play to ask for advice. The rest, as they say, is history. Ms Christina Kim duly
qualified and is now a big name in LPGA. For Sixto, the same cell phone remains
in his possession despite failing batteries and a long expired shelf-life of the
phone itself. For him, it just might ring again and when it does, it can only be
for the big time!
Meanwhile, the Junior Golfers’ Programme started by Sixto to produce new young
talents continues in this most unassuming course of Wallace Golf Club, although
as he has often wondered, for how much longer? In retro, it is not as if he
hasn’t done enough for golf in the Philippines by first becoming a caddy, then
winning the National Caddies’ Tournament of the Philippines and then
representing the nation in the Putra Cup (a regional Southeast Asia
Inter-national Team Tournament) which his team won with no small contribution of
his top 10 finish in the individuals. The pinnacle of his career was being the
personal caddy to the great President following which was his illustrious
involvement in the building of Wallace. Sixto has in fact come full circle and
should be able now to look back with pride and satisfaction at Wallace today.
But, nearby, where the Casino is, the landscape has lately been irreversibly
unearthed. In about six months’ time, a modern 18-hole course will be ready to
complement the Casino with mod-cons that Wallace can only dream of. What of
Wallace after that? The committee has, albeit reluctantly, decided that progress
shall be the way to go and the sand-green shall be turfed, just like everywhere
else. Deep down, in the fading light of the evening sun there’s sadness evident
through the smudged metal-rimmed glasses on the well-weathered face of the
creator of the Wallace Golf Club. Looking over the sand-green of the last hole
in the direction of the lighthouse, there is no doubt in his mind, when the
virgin turf finally surfaces in six months’ time, a piece of the colourful
history of golf in the Philippines will be silently but surely concealed and
lost forever! Will Sixto remain? Why not, even if it is only for the reason that
putting will now become less strenuous! There’s so much that he can now look
back on and be proud of, and not least to pass on the story of the origin of
golf in San Fernando lest it be so easily forgotten beneath the skin-deep turf
of the new green. Yes, I shall remain, just like Christina Kim, watch your telly,
never fails to aim her put a little beyond the hole, he assured me!
Post script note:
GOLFnTours.com chanced upon Mr. Sixto Domenden at Wallace’s driving range while
net-working in the Philippines to bring the country into its golf tours
destination map and also to promote in general the business of GOLFnTours.com.
If you find the article interesting you might like to find out more about golf
in the Philippines. GOLFnTours.com would be happy to tailor a package for you
there or to any other hot golf destinations in Southeast Asia.
Article Source:
http://www.bettergolfarticles.com
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