Pinoy Golfer Blog

Eagle Ridge Golf and Country Club director Ramil Villanueva, Business Mirror publisher Anton Cabangon with Norman Tugot A foundation is being organized in the name of Celestino Tugot, “Ka Tino“ to his best friends to help grow the game in the country. A local golf legend, Tugot is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best golfers the Philippines has produced. One of only two Golf Hall of Fame awardees and a 6 time Philippine Open champion Ka Tino represented the country 10 times in the World Cup, which is regarded as the Olympics of Golf. He was also the first Filipino athlete to be a guest of the U.S. President at the White House. Norman Tugot, one of Tino’s 2 sons, is spearheading... Read More

As a golfer, I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of the wonderful golf courses in the Philippines. I’ve been struck by their beauty and the depth of their challenges to the golfer. With the phenomenal growth of the game in the Asia Pacific Region, I’ve often wondered why we don’t get more golf tourists here. Yes, we get our share of Korean nationals but surely there are more golfing nations around the world that find value in the beauty of the local golf courses. Well, local golf tourism just got a shot in the arm. Earlier this month, 48 professional and amateur golfers from Australia, including PGA Tour of Australasia and European Tour veteran Rodger Davis, flew into the island paradise... Read More

Manila, March 29: The Philippine Open, Asia’s oldest national championship, will make a welcome return onto the Asian Tour Schedule after a two-year lapse. The International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), which is in the business of acquiring, developing and operating container ports and terminals worldwide, has provided a huge boost for the prestigious championship by title sponsoring the 95th edition from May 12 to 15, 2011 at its traditional home, the newly renovated Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s East Course. A total prize fund of US$300,000 will be on offer to Asia’s elite players at the ICTSI Philippine Open. It was played as a domestic event in 2009 and 2010, won by... Read More

This is a guest post by Edgar Joselito (Jun) S. Arceo, Jr. – Secretary-General of the National Golf Association of the Philippines. The 2011 Philippine Amateur Championship will be conducted via stroke play. The NGAP was compelled to make the shift from match play to stroke/medal play in order to keep abreast with our neighboring countries. In our region, the Philippines remains as the only one that conducts its national championships via match play. Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand all have their national championships conducted via stroke play. These are the same countries that the Philippines competes against in regional tournaments such as the Southeast Asian Games,... Read More

We were at a tournament and after the day’s play I made the rounds of the sponsor’s tables to see what they had on display. I was dismayed to find this fellow in the same area as some of the major OEM’s. If you look closely, you’ll see that he has clubheads purportedly from some of the major OEM’s; a white TaylorMade Burner 2.0 head is clearly visible in the third shelf from the top of the display case on the left. He’s also selling them all CHEAP. Now for the Pinoygolfer looking for a bargain, these might seem like a good deal, but you have to know that these heads are all counterfeits. Fakes. Buy one and you’ve been duped. How do we know? Well, first... Read More

In an earlier post I detailed my experiences with the new Titleist D2 and D3 drivers. I couldn’t get them out of my mind since the session at the Logcomm driving range so I decided to go out and get one for myself. The first problem was which one to get? Initially, I was attracted to the D2 because it was more forgiving. I’ve been in the mode to get clubs that are more forgiving recently since a) I don’t spend nearly as much time practicing as I should and b) getting on a bit in years, I need as much help as I can get. But after some soul-searching and consultation with my good buddy Jovi Neri in Cebu, I decided to go with the D3. I am and always have been a high-launch, high... Read More

Nike Golf is introducing two sets of forged VR irons for 2011 – VR Pro Combo and VR Pro – that are slick, eye-catching updates of previous Nike design concepts. Several companies, including Nike, are focusing much of their product development on consumers who carry low handicaps or dream of doing so. Indeed, it’s a perfect time to be a skilled player. Nike’s two new forged models, for example, will be followed in the near future by TaylorMade’s introduction of three forged irons. For 2011, it is clear that forged irons are making a comeback. Many golfers have followed Nike closely in the nine years since the Swoosh first appeared on golf clubs, and what they witnessed at times was... Read More

The never ending search for distance off the tee has led the industry towards longer and lighter drivers. Cleveland Golf has been one of the leaders of this movement with the sub-300 gram DST drivers which were very well received by the discerning members of Pinoygolfer.com as well as the Philippine market. Advances in technology and the use of even lighter materials has pushed driver weights further down than ever before without the deleterious effects of previous iterations. Welcome the Cleveland Launcher Ultralite drivers. The Cleveland Launcher Ultralite Series consists of drivers of three weights – 310-grams, 290-grams and 270-grams; each model engineered for unique performance and feel... Read More

I’m a hot rodder at heart. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking something that’s available to all and making it your own. As a young man with a passion for automobiles, I spent more than I should have on performance and cosmetic accessories to get my cars to look and perform as I wanted. As a cyclist, I wasn’t content to purchase a bike off the rack; instead I purchased tubing, lugs and dropouts from Italy and had a local craftsman build the bike of my dreams to my exact specifications. As a golfer, I’ve often taken the same road but often times it’s out of necessity. My preferences in golf equipment have always run a bit counter to the norm. While most are looking to lighter... Read More

The Callaway Jaws wedge with conforming grooves in the foreground A while back, it came to the attention of the United States Golf Association that the skill of driving accuracy had become a much less important factor in achieving success while playing golf than it used to be. USGA analysis of statistical data measured by the PGA Tour since 1980 shows that historically, driving accuracy was similarly correlated to winning as putting. Beginning in the early 1990’s, however, driving accuracy became much less important. In the early part of the 21st century, the correlation between driving accuracy rank and winning rank had reached a very low level. It was the era of what was then called “bomb... Read More