A wonderful New Year to all of you!

I started the first of January 2011with an early boat trip to catch the whale sharks at Sogod Bay in Southern Leyte, Philippines.

It was an hour and 15 minute boat trip on a beautiful morning to get to where the whale sharks were known to surface and feed for krill and plankton.  The boat ride was the perfect time to reminisce and be thankful for my golf highlights in 2010.  There was much to be grateful for and many memorable high points for me. 
Here are my top 10 golf highlights in 2010:

1.  My golfing buddies – What’s a golf game without them? Rain or shine, good or bad day.  They are your best friends, they take your money, you take theirs... they are your drinking buddies, your shopping girlfriends and your shrinks all rolled into one. They are with you through your double pars and if you are lucky (like me!) they are with you when you make your hole in one!… what can I say?  They just make playing golf so much more fun….

                                 Marlo and Bernie

Ian and Gil (Benjie & Ernie where are you?)

                            The Spartans....

2. The launching of my golf accessories website: www.onthetee.com.ph   Creating and designing golf accessories for my personal use was just a hobby.  Until I started getting compliments and requests for me to make these golf accessories for their own use.  Then golf pro shops started carrying them in their  shops.  Golf tournament organizers started ordering for their giveaways and prizes.  Hence the brand “On The Tee” and  www.onthetee.com.ph was born.

3.  Barclays Open in Sentosa Singapore –To be with and watch my golf idols in action was simply my fairway to heaven. 

Adam Scott, my new love but he doesn't know it yet...

                                         Phil Mickelson

4. My little golf bag – While I carried other bestsellers at www.onthetee.com.ph  such as the weary golfer’s heating pad, colorful rain covers and fun shirts, it was “My little Golf bag” that was the most requested golf accessory that I carried. Designed especially for women golfers, this was without a doubt my favorite.  Finally, a golf vanity bag for women to house all the “essentials” we needed while playing golf.  Ok maybe they weren’t always essentials but hey we needed a bag for it! “My little golf bag” came in hot pink, purple, orange, yellow, aqua blue, red, black etc….  You name the color and we had it. Finally a little golf bag to take around the fairways!  Did I mention it came with a matching little golf ball bag? 

                                     My Little golf bag

                                    Fits all your essentials!

5. Golf with dad – My dad is 80 years old and still beats me at golf.  How cool is that?  

                               My 80 year old Dad Charlie

6. Forest Hills Ladies Circle – There’s relaxing weekend golf and then there’s competitive golf.  It’s great to be part of a team that plays, trains and travels together for competitive golf.  These are amazing golfing women who can balance career and/or family life and still able to squeeze in a mean round of golf in the picture.  

                                  Forest Hills Ladies Circle

7. Golf vacations – What’s a vacation without golf?  I am fortunate that my whole family enjoys the sport.  So we can plan our trips around it.  No one is left out.  Vacations are just so much more fun! 

                                Half moon bay in California

8.My first golf expo – I joined The 15^th Philippine golf International show in 2010. It was my first time to participate in a golf expo and a good way to introduce “On The Tee” to the golfing community 

                  Mi Hee and I at the golf show

9. My first pro am – Mercedes Benz cup 2010 – I hope I get invited again in 2011

                                      

10. Golf with the ones you Love– The family that plays together, stays together!

                                   With the men in my life!

What are your chances of making a hole in one?

A hole in one is considered an extraordinary accomplishment amongst golfers. It’s a precious achievement that some say requires a lot of skill and technique from the golfer. Tiger Woods had made two during his PGA career and 18 in his life. The first one when he was 6 years old. Annika Sorenstam, with 67 all-time victories has made 3. It’s often reported that the late great Ben Hogan never had a hole in one. While I agree it takes some skill, I believe it’s mostly luck. And how lucky can one get? What are the odds of your making a hole in one?I remember mine quite clearly. It was on hole 16 of the Eastridge Golf and Country Club. I teed up my pink precept ladies ball and hit it. At that time I had only been playing for two years and seven months. I would have been considered a beginner by most standards. I made a fairly decent swing, saw the ball go straight and land on the green and then slowly disappear. Of course I was in disbelief. But my heart was beating. Pounding even. My three golfing buddies Ernie, Ian and Benjie were shouting and laughing. I must have turned pale because I recall Ernie passing me his bottled water and saying, “drink some!”. We hurriedly got into the cart and drove to the green. There was no ball in sight. I kept thinking, “it’s in the cup, I got a hole in one, it’s in the cup…” I said this partly not to jinx anything, and mostly to convince myself I really did get a hole in one. I ran down the cart but slowly walked to the flag. So slow I could hear the beating of my heart. I bent over to check the cup and lo and behold there was my pink ball!

A hole in one! I remember i just kept just jumping up and down like i had won the lottery.

I was even luckier that i had the coolest golfing buddies who kept my proud moment alive by taking pictures as it happened. Like the whole event was meant to be. So what are the percentages of this happening? My darling father who is turning 80 years old soon and who has been playing golf for almost 40 years now has never had one. My husband Alex has had two holes in one. Then there are some golfers who go and finish their entire careers without ever having one. So I did a little bit of research and found out the following information:

In 1999, Golf Digest reported, “One insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro’s chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur’s at 1 in 12,750.” That same issue reported that the “odds of an amateur making two holes-in-one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1.” Golf Digest has provided “acer odds” since the 1950s, and in the year 2000 hired Francis Scheid, Ph.D., the retired chairman of the math department at Boston University, to calculate the odds using the latest and best information available. The odds Scheid came up with were: 5,000 to 1 for a “low-handicapper,” 12,000 to 1 for an “average player.” If you are a low-handicapper and play 1,000 rounds in your life, according to Scheid, you have a 20-percent chance of recording an ace. If you play 5,000 rounds, your odds are 1:1.
The Golf Digest study provided many great nuggets of information, even breaking the odds down by quality of play:

Tour player making an ace: 3,000 to 1

Low-handicapper making an ace: 5,000 to 1

Average player making an ace: 12,000 to 1

Some other highlights from Scheid’s calculations:
Average player acing a 200-yard hole: 150,000 to 1
Two players from the same foursome acing the same hole: 17 million to 1
One player making two holes-in-one in the same round: 67 million to 1
(Source: Primary source is Golf Digest; more info on acer odds and holes-in-one can be found in the Sept. 2005 issue.)

So keep on playing. If you are an average player there’s a 1 in 12,750 chance you could get a hole in one in your lifetime.

Ernie, Ian, Me and Benjie

When women golfers go on a road trip....

A golf trip for women only.  I was excited!  It wasn’t exactly a golf getaway.  It was going to be one tough competition against some of the best women golfers. It's not very often that seven women could take a week off, to represent their club and compete in the 18^th Women's Golf Association of the Philippines at the Del Monte Golf Club in Bukidnon. 

Over a hundred thirty women from 19 golf clubs covering Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao playing three straight days (excluding practice rounds) with no golf carts (except for seniors). Walking  6,313 meters daily under the hot sun while playing in challenging and sloping fairways.  Of course this was one golf trip I was not going to miss!

So seven of us from the Forest Hills ladies team packed our bags and flew down to Cagayan de Oro to compete. For 3 grueling days we would wake up at 4:30 am and drive roughly 10 kilometers of semi rough road or about 1 1/2 hours from our hotel in the city to Bukidnon where Del Monte Golf Club was. After about 5 or so hours of competition and walking the entire 18 holes, it was another long drive back.  Thank god for caddies. 

There are many things you experience and quite a few lessons to learn in a  golf trip such as this. The TOP TEN on my list include:

1. Nothing beats a great foot massage after a round of tournament golf.  Especially when it costs only Php 150.00 (less than $3 USD!)  It’s even more enjoyable when your teammate smuggles in a bottle of red wine and shares it  with you during the massage.

2. A good nights sleep is priceless.  The quality of rest before a big match can never be underestimated.  If you wake up at 4:30 am everyday while competing it takes its toll unless you get to bed early every night. Awards night not included.
3. A roommate you are at home with.  There’s nothing like rooming in with a girlfriend.  It’s even more enjoyable when she let’s you sleep in a few more minutes in the morning by taking the first slot in the bathroom.  It’s a bonus when she doesn’t even snore!
4. Eat Right.  This will keep your energy up throughout the competition.  This starts with a good breakfast and proper snacking throughout the game. More importantly, find the best local restaurant in the city and feast on great seafood.

 Panagatan seafood restaurant in Cagayan de Oro

5. It’s not all golf.  Take time out to see the sights and play tourist. 

    Del Monte Pineapples everywhere!

6. Be considerate and share.  Even when that Durian fruit that you have been lusting for is right in front of you and you want it all to your self, share it with others. 

  Durian, the king of fruits!

7. Laughter – Sure be serious and focused while competing but don’t forget that when things don’t go your way,  there’s nothing like a good laugh.

8. Don't be too hard on yourself.  A glass of red wine with the juicy Del Monte roast beef sandwich at the golf club is allowed even when you don't score too well.

 9. Enjoy the golf course. That's why you are there right?

  Par 3 - Warren's hole

10.  Nothing beats a golf trip with 7 female golfaholics. There’s just nothing like it.

 So yeah, you learn a lot from a golf trip such as this. You learn about your emotional self too. You find out that you need to keep your spirits high even when you aren’t playing your best.  You learn that playing in a team where everyone cheers you on when you need it most is more important than winning.  You discover that while winning isn’t everything, it feels darn good when you do. 

Forest Hills Ladies – Champion, Pearl Division

You learn that a golf trip with girl friends is not only therapeutic, it’s downright fun!

I am grounded… from golf!

My physiotherapist says I am grounded from golf.  Yes, NO GOLF until my pain subsides and the medications kick in.  “Grounded????  Can’t I just stand in the corner for a few hours as my punishment and still play golf tomorrow?” I asked my doctor with my “pretty please pleading look”.  Unfortunately none of my charms worked.  “Well, if you continue to ignore my professional advice then you deserve all the pain you are feeling” was all he said.

It started with a feeling of numbness on my middle finger, which I had ignored for the last two years.  Then a creeping pain appeared on my neck and shoulder area. At first the pain was easy to dismiss.  Nothing a good massage at the spa couldn’t take away.  But my neck and shoulder perpetually felt like there was a 20 pound bowling ball resting on it. This prompted my visit to the radiology department at the hospital for an MRI scan of my neck and cervical spine.  Results showed that I had a posterior disc bulge with moderate right facet joint hypertrophy that was producing neural foraminal narrowing and possibly contacting a nerve root.  What the  f***zz???  Translation: countless sessions of physiotherapy that included transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), an Ultrasound that gave me some kind of deep heating at the tender area around my neck and shoulder and 20-minute neck traction. These sessions also included a neck and shoulder massage. These all helped ease my pain although I did feel I was getting away with murder because the “massages” were being covered by my health insurance.

On top of all these therapy sessions I was given a cocktail of “nerve medications” and a dose of vitamin B which all added to my increase of appetite, water retention, hyperactive oil glands and drowsiness.  “Hmmph, is this all worth it so I can play GOLF?” I thought.  And of course the answer was a resounding YES!

In between all the physiotherapy sessions and drug abuse, I was still playing golf regularly including taking part in our Team Forest Hills WGAP (Women’s Golf Association of the Philippines) tournaments where I participated in two legs.  I also managed to squeeze in a Business World - Raul Locsin cup tournament and an invitation to the SAP World Tour President’s Cup Philippines.  

So did I fell better?  Did my pain go away?  Did I heal faster????  Can you guess???  Not only did the pain not go away.  It got worse!  And I had no one else to blame but myself.

So it was back to the hospital for me and this time for a Trigger point injection (TPI).  This is a procedure used to treat painful areas of muscle that contain trigger points, or knots of muscle that form and hurt when muscles do not relax. My doctor inserted a small needle into my trigger point that contained a local anesthetic with a little steroid. This injection is supposed to alleviate my pain and reduce the inflammation.

It’s been three days since my trigger point injection and I am feeling some muscle soreness and pain.  I further tortured myself by going to my local golf club Eastridge not to play but to watch the men’s federation (Eastridge versus Orchard with Eastridge sweeping the home games!).  I never thought it could hurt so much to be at a golf course and just watch others play. Not fair!

So I am grounded.  No GOLF.  It’s the weekend and I am grounded!

As my dear golfing girlfriend Bernie would say, “My body is present…. But my mind has teed off!”

Fore!

If your ball lands in the Indian burial ground, it's a free drop!

“Hi! Welcome to Indian Wells!  Is it your first time here?” The starter says with a big grin. He rattles off a couple of reminders before he sends us on our way to hole number 1 of its Celebrity course.  “Don’t forget to hydrate.  It can get pretty hot out there.  There are no cart path restrictions.  One more thing, if your ball lands in the Indian burial grounds, it’s a free drop……”
As soon as I heard that, I knew I was going to enjoy playing the course. The good news was that the temperature had gone down some.  So 109 degrees was a little cooler from 113 F earlier that morning. It was the first time for me and “the men in my golf life” to play Indian Wells and we were quite excited to see if we could conquer her.

Indian Wells is located in the center of Coachella Valley and just 20 minutes east of Palm Springs. The two-hour drive from Los Angeles was so worth it. The mountain views were scenic. The fairways were lush and the greens immaculate.

It was hard for me to concentrate between taking pictures and playing the course. The landscaping was just gorgeous. Every hole looked like a postcard. Because there were no houses surrounding the golf resort, there were no distractions. The course had a tranquil look and feel.  Like you had entered a “golf” sanctuary. The best part was the playability of the course. The orientation of its multiple tee boxes was challenging enough for the single handicapper and manageable for the novice golfer as well. Indian Wells was recently ranked the only 36-hole public golf facility in Golfweek’s  2010 “Top 20 Best Places You Can Play” in California. And I so totally agree!