Pinoy Golfer Blog

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

#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; } 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

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

Canlubang Golf & Country Club is one of my favourite golf clubs in this country. This is one club where you won’t see a grand clubhouse, marble floors and a five star restaurant. This is a club that you go to celebrate the great game of golf and the field on which it’s played. In all the Philippines, there are few locations as natural for golf as Canlubang. The twin courses were designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. in the infancy of his career. He was in the country helping his father with Hacienda Luisita when Don Jose Yulo showed him this stunning piece of land in the vast Canlubang Sugar Estate. It’s said that he just needed to decide where to put the tees and the greens and the... Read More

I’ve been privileged to have played most of the great golf courses in The Philippines in the course of my work and I’m often asked which course is my favorite. The is a very tough question that leaves me groping for an answer and no answer is put forward without qualifiers, but there’s one constant; Calatagan Golf Club in the sleepy Batangas town that lent the club its name, is always near the top of that list. The next question is usually, “Why?” And my stock answer is, “If you’re asking, then you probably haven’t played it yet”. Sure enough they have not. Calatagan connects with me on a level that I’m not sure I understand myself. Just driving up the Kalachuchi lined... Read More