Golf has been a part of more than three quarters of my life. I picked up the game in 1991 at the age of 8 by tagging along with my father in a golf course called Puerto Azul in Tarnate, Cavite. I had vague memories of actually swinging a club, but more so with riding a golf cart and a simple golf etiquette, where I was told not to step on a fellow golfer’s line of putt. I never really cared or I was just not aware of how the game was played. We would also often go to a pro shop called Panwest, in an area now called Paseo de Magallanes, and look at golf club. Since they didn’t have a junior set, my dad got me a Wilson junior golf set all the way from Guam.
I have no idea where my first golf set ended up, but had I known I would be in the golf business now, I would have kept it. It was this model:
(Driver/Spoon, 5,7,9,P, and a bull’s eye putter)
What I remember really sparking my interest in the game was memories of waking up at 3am (we had just subscribed to sky cable tv) and watching the Masters Live on Star Sports. The year was 1992 and that year’s champion was Fred Couples. He was so cool on tv and made golf look easy. The crowd was cheering for him, and after that Masters I was hooked on playing golf. I wanted to swing like Freddie did, relaxed and easy, but annihilating the golf ball in the process.
(Fred Couples at the 1992 Masters)
High school Days – I am Tiger Woods
From 1992 – 1996 I had memorized all the major champions, though Freddie was still my idol. But in 1997, this all changed when the big cat entered the professional golfing world – yes that cat’s name is Tiger. The year he turned pro, with all the media hype, I got really serious and started dreaming of becoming a professional golfer.