Pinoy Golfer Blog

The public golf course that you and I are familiar with is most likely in one of the military bases with fairways of carabao grass, hardpan during summer, a mud slog during monsoon season with sluggish zoysia greens. Well, Sun Valley Golf Club, a new public golf course in Cogeo, Antipolo has just blown those perceptions clear out of the water and raised the bar for public golf courses in the Philippines to another level. The pride and joy of Johnson Ong, Sun Valley is a golf course that can hold its own with any course in the country. An Arnold Palmer signature course, Sun Valley’s fairways are Tifton 319 and the greens first generation Tiftdwarf. The course is fully sanded and is playable... Read More

When it comes to golf properties, there are few that can rival Tagaytay Midlands Golf Club. The topography is perfect for a golf course. Built below the crater’s rim, it retains dramatic elevation changes while still offering room enough to hit driver off most of the par fours. And the view! There are few as breathtaking. The club sits on the rim of an extinct volcano whose prehistoric eruption created Taal Lake, the Tagaytay Ridge and Volcano Island as we know it today. Over two million plants of different varieties and 37,000 trees were planted to enhance the landscape. A unique feature of the club is the funicular system that connects the Midlands with Tagaytay Highlands, the crown jewel... Read More

Sta. Elena Golf Club has been the most consistently recognized and awarded golf club in the country. This year, the Robert Trent Jones, Jr. layout received the Golf Digest architectural award as one of the Top 100 Golf Courses outside the United States (rank of 99) and was, surprisingly, the only golf course in Southeast Asia (and the Philippines) to be so recognized. This is the second time that Sta. Elena has won this award; the first being back in 2005-2006, and to the people that have played and know it well, this award hardly comes as a surprise. The club was kind enough to play host to the golf writers to share this award with us and the course deserves all the accolades that have... Read More

I have a lot of friends from Ayala Alabang. To a person, I tend not to see them at all once they move there as they are loathe leaving Ayala Alabang itself, let alone Muntinlupa for dinner or drinks in Makati. If I don’t make the drive out, we don’t see each other. To a very large extent, I blame the Country Club. Alabang Country Club, Inc. has the most extensive array of facilities of any club in the country. It’s the only club with a golf course AND a polo field. Not to mention recreational facilities of every persuasion and even a gas station. If it had a supermarket, my friends would never leave the club! They have a gem of a golf course; an unsigned work of esteemed golf course architect,... Read More

Congratulations to Angelo Que for defending his ICTSI Mt. Malarayat Championship at the beautiful Mt. Malarayat Golf and Country Club. It was a far cry from last year when he shot 20-under par and won by 3. This year he was determined to make it exciting for all concerned. Richard Sinfuego and Wisut Artjunawat (again!) pushed Que to the limit. Artjunawat mounted a very stiff charge and got to 12-under with two to play but finished bogie-bogie to fall out of contention. Sinfuego led from the second day and threatened to win wire to wire, but for an errant drive which found the water on the 72nd hole and  led to a double bogie. Angelo didn’t make it easy on himself with the win in sight;... Read More

Choosing the right golf ball has always been somewhat of a black art. The average golfer is largely influenced by their favorite tour player and chooses the same ball as their hero. After all, who doesn’t want to hit 300-yard drives and stop the ball dead on the greens? But this isn’t always the best or even the correct choice. The average Juan rarely has the same clubhead speed as their favorite tour player and without the ability to compress the harder tour caliber golf ball, Juan will not be able to make the most of the tour ball’s considerable abilities. But the golf ball manufacturers have seen our plight and have responded with a range of tour quality golf balls for mortals with... Read More

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club will always hold a special place for me. This is the first club that I joined (I acquired playing rights back in the late 90’s) when I acquired playing rights after my brother bought a share here. I was impressed with the size and concept of the development. The fact that... Read More

One of the most improbable locations for golf is also one of the most beautiful. Fairways and Bluewater is a golf course that must be experienced to fully comprehend. The natural beauty of the golf course will sweep you off your feet; it’s well worth the trouble to get there. My first trip there was for the Chairman’s Cup and birthday celebration of Fairways and Bluewater chair Toti Cariño in November of 2005. I boarded the plane to Caticlan, was shuttled off the Fairways and Bluewater’s expansive terminal then boarded the pumpboat that took us to station 1. Upon arrival, I was shuttled off to the Clubhouse and after checking in, went straight to the golf course. It was the longest... Read More

  #gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } Come down and be a part of the ICTSI Mt. Malarayat Championships at Mt. Malarayat Golf and Country Club on May 20-23. This is a leg of the Mercedes Benz-Asean Tour. Watch the Philippines’ best golfers strut their stuff on one of Philippine golf’s most beautiful golf courses. Last year’s Champion Angelo Que shot 20... Read More

#gallery-3 { margin: auto; } #gallery-3 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-3 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-3 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } So much of what a golf course is has to do with the piece of land on which it’s built. You can do great things with great land and fortunately, Sherwood Hills Golf Club sits on a great golfing piece of real estate. Sherwood Hills Vice-Chair Freddie Campos related that he brought the Great One, Jack Nicklaus to the site... Read More

Objective – Fellowship, to Enjoy a beautiful golf course Where – East Ridge Golf & Country Club, Binangonan, Rizal When – May 13, 2009 at 8 AM Format – Palusutan optional, Modified Stableford, net of handicaps (PhP 100) Particulars – Green fees PhP 1200, Cart PhP 800, Caddie PhP 400 + tip How to get there: Take Ortigas Avenue to Antipolo, drive past Rizal Provincial Capitol and Ynares Sports Complex until you reach a stoplight. Turn right at the light and follow road until you hit East Ridge property. It’s that simple. Hope to see you all there. Here are some pics during the EB. Enjoy! #gallery-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-4 .gallery-item... Read More

Nestled at the foot of the Batangas mountain range for which it is named, sits the beautiful Mt. Malarayat Golf and Country Club, the crown jewel of the Active Group. Situated in Lipa, 1,200 feet above sea level the weather is appreciably cooler than lower locales. The mountains provide a stunning backdrop to this modern parkland style course. Laid out by Bob Moore of JMP Design Group, the course consists of three nines, all named for peaks in the Malarayat range, Mt. Makulot, Mt. Lobo and Mt. Malipunyo. Interestingly, the first tees of each of the nines orient you directly at the mountain for which the nine is named. Even more interesting is that this was achieved by luck and only noticed after... Read More

I happened across this article by Tom Wishon a couple of years back, but the information here is so good, I kept it just to share with you all! Use it in good health! One of the most common misconceptions about custom fitting golf clubs is that middle- and high-handicap golfers are convinced they are “not good enough to be custom fit.” Last year I had the chance to read a survey on custom clubfitting conducted by the leading information clearing house in the golf industry. One of the bits of information that just made me shake my head in disbelief was that the vast majority of middle-to-high-handicap respondents said, “as soon as I get better, I’ll think about being custom... Read More