I’M going to take a short break from talking about divorce and Galileo and stuff about the Catholic Church and all, and focus on a sport that, after a hiatus of more than 10 years, I am beginning to like all over again.
That sport is golf, and I suppose my revived interest in it (which has no relation whatsoever with my skill at playing it) is proof of the saying that as a man gets older his interests in sports demonstrate a shrinking of his balls: from basketball when he is younger to golf when he gets older.
‘There’s no better golfing capital of the future for the Philippines than Palawan.’
My revived interest in the sport is fueled by a number of factors acting in concert, so to speak: I am more senior in the office, which means I have staff who do the day-to-day work while I provide guidance and broad brushstrokes. This means that on weekends I need not fret about details that I will then work on during the weekdays, freeing my mind to focus on YouTube instructional golf videos while feeding my dogs at home. My senior position at work also means I have little extra funds to pay for the driving range and once-in-a-while tutorials from a local pro, while living in BGC puts me 10 to 15 minutes away from the Kagitingan Army golf course (a 9-hole spread) or 20 minutes away from Villamor’s 18-hole championship course, not to mention being about an hour away from the short but tight Intramuros golf club or three to four-hour drive from my “home course,” the Calatagan Golf in Batangas.
Never mind that my level of play today is about the same as what it was in the 1990s when then-councilor Alan Cayetano of Taguig got me to join him in the Kagitingan driving range under the tutelage of pro “Boy” Cruz, who has long passed away. Even my first caddies in Calatagan, Mang Dioning and Mang Levi, must be turning in their graves seeing how I haven’t advanced much after three decades!
My level of play aside, I think I’ve gotten to know and appreciate golf enough to understand what potential it can bring to a golf investor, and to a locale that wishes to capitalize on the interest in the game from locals as well as foreigners. Calatagan, in fact, is a model for me; our club has been kept afloat during the lean years by a steady influx of Korean golfers (from the south, just to be clear) who play 36 holes a day (that’s two rounds of the full course) daily for the length of their stay in quarters they’ve reserved for themselves before they fly back home to Korea.
If Calatagan is a chosen destination, why not somewhere else? And why not Palawan?
Yes, I think Palawan has the potential to become the golfing capital of the Philippines. Think about it: unlike 99% of our country, Palawan is hardly ever hit by typhoons that leave in their wake a wide path of destruction. Yes, it can get affected especially in the northern parts close to Mindoro, but the big main island is usually spared. Rare typhoons mean golf all year round!
Then there are no earthquakes. Not that golfers fear earthquakes anyway.
So imagine Palawan studded with three or four, even five courses, adding to its allure. While the menfolk play golf, the ladies could be sunning on the beach. And both come home with a great tan!
As of now, except for what is left of the Western Command golf course in Puerto Princesa and the nine-hole spread in Rio Tuba in Bataraza town, there’s no golf course in Palawan. So let this be a hint to investors: why not open a course or two or three in this so-called “last frontier”?
There’s no better golfing capital of the future for the Philippines than Palawan.
And I am almost certain: if you build it, golfers will come!
