Each year, we are very fortunate that our newspaper publishers receive an invitation from the Philippine Airlines to cover the annual PAL Interclub golf tournament. And usually, community newspaper publishers don’t cover the event and so, who do they send? The sports editor, sports writer or the photographer.
I am grateful I had several chances of writing about the event and even play in the Media Tournament (remember Charles Maxey (now PSC commissioner) when tournament director Jake Ayson said I had a lovely golf swing? Thanks to that Ping driver loaned to me by compadre (now Asec) Joseph Encabo that time!).
If you notice dear readers, this is PAL time and it’s going to be back in the City of Smiles, Bacolod.
Davao City-based golf clubs and from around the world will troop to Bacolod for the Seniors ( 32nd Philippine Airlines Senior Interclub) and Regular( 71st PAL Men’s Regular Interclub championships) tournaments where we can witness the best amateur players in action!
While the golfers compete, the PAL interclub is actually a “reunion” for sports editors, writers and photographers who after months of hard work on the field, get the chance to take a break. Yes, it’s actually a vacation treat by Philippine Airlines.
You got to only write the PAL golf story for a week or two. That’s it! Unlike the usual grind of writing three to four stories, or even more, each day, send it to our editors, who are either in Davao or in Manila, and hope it gets the space that we wanted. Tough job, my friends, tough and lonely job. But hey! We love it!
I still keep the Ping driver of Asec Encabo, managing editor Neil Bravo. And with our publisher, manong Tony’s permission, we can test it again. Why not?
What about the golf set? I still have it, thanks to Willie Roldan, now Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) Executive Director who decided years back to give his other golf set to me in a “simple turnover ceremony” at the Philippine Sports Commission office (LOL).
In 2019? What do you think Neil Bravo?
I haven’t seen the lovely faces of PAL media coordinators Pinky Balagtas and Eya Prospero (now happily married ladies) for years.
I think it’s about time.
