Philippines Golf Academy

On September 12th of this year, the Philippine Golf Tour dropped a bombshell by announcing the suspension of Juvic Pagunsan, the hottest player on the Tour this year and the current leader of the Tour’s Order of Merit for the rest of the 2011 season.

The suspension stemmed for Pagunsan’s sudden withdrawal from the recently concluded jointly sanctioned Aboitiz Invitational in Cebu of the Philippine Golf Tour and Asian Development Tour. According to reports Pagunsan took offence when asked to register his personal caddy with the caddy master of the host Cebu Country Club before teeing off. When asked to do so by the starter, Pagunsan walked off the golf course and later claimed a sore foot as the reason his withdrawal.

The Tour then suspended Pagunsan under Clause 10 of the Tour Guidelines which calls for the PGT to maintain a strict no tolerance policy for behaviour unbecoming of a professional. The provisions of the clause covers professional conduct, including failure to comply with appropriate etiquette, misbehavior, injurious conduct and other similar acts and omissions.

Needless to say the suspension has generated considerable controversy within the golfing community. Discussions rage among all golfers and within the Pinoygolfer.com message boards debating the wisdom, harshness and effects of the disciplinary action. So the ultimate question becomes; did the Tour do the right thing?

I’ve followed Pagunsan’s career closely as a golf journalist for the last seven years or so. I spoke to his coaches in the ICTSI amateur team that admitted to me that they gave Juvic exceptional leeway when it came to team practice and other activities. Their rationale for doing so was that his performance was always exceptional during competitions so they chose to leave him to his own devices while they concentrated on other members of the team. I observed his strained relations with the National Golf Association of the Philippines and how he accused some of its directors with using the team resources for their personal use at tournaments abroad.

I’ve also watched, enthralled, as his game blossomed as a professional. Watched his first win in Indonesia with rapt admiration and marvelled at the length and accuracy of his long game and the artistry and maturity of his game on and around the greens. I’ve seen his game gain in stature as he set the course record (62, 10-under par) at the Orchard’s storied Palmer Course and watched disheartened at his sudden, unannounced withdrawal from the ICTSI Forest Hills Invitational in 2010, the unceremonious firing of his caddy less than halfway through his round at the ICTSI Negros Occidental Championship and the incident at the Aboitiz in Cebu.

It breaks my heart that possibly Philippine golf’s leading light is plagued by such duality; a Jeckell/Hyde personality that seems poised to undermine every success he’s enjoyed and his potential as one of the best golfers in the region. That Juvic has an estranged relationship with his father Jaunito is common knowledge in golfing circles. My psychologist friends tell me that this is the probable cause with Pagunsan’s ever present problems with authority. But is the ban the solution? Perhaps there’s a better way to get through to him.

When treating aberrant behaviour, it is imperative that the person in question realize the consequences of his action. Only when that realization happens is the person receptive to possible solutions. One of my late aunts was a chronic smoker and drinker. My lasting memories of her are with a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail glass in the other. I was amazed that she stopped both drinking and smoking cold turkey upon learning that she had a potentially fatal heart condition. In the end her body succumbed to the abuse she’d heaped upon it, but she managed to prolong her life by a couple of years by heeding the doctors’ advice by quitting both vices.

I’m of the opinion that when Juvic abandoned the ICTSI Forest Hills Invitational, the Tour should have sanctioned him immediately. A PhP 50,000 fine would have rattled his world and driven home the point that that sort of thing would not be tolerated by the Tour. Perhaps if that were the scenario then, I wouldn’t be writing about this today. But what’s done is done and the fact is that there were subsequent incidents that wrought the Tour’s ire upon Pagunsan.

There are the effects on the other members of the Tour as well. As a part time official on the Philippine Golf Tour, some pros have come up to me and lamented the seeming inequity of the situation. They work hard to keep to the Tour’s rules and policies while these same tenets are flaunted with impunity by the Tour’s biggest star. It is for this reason that the suspension was both necessary and appropriate.

Unfortunately, this was seen by some as punishment going beyond the incident which it precipitated. I believe the Tour had no choice. Continued tolerance would have sent a bad message to all the Tour’s professionals; that it would tolerate shenanigans from its stars but not the rank and file, which is of course, patently untrue. It was important to send a message that the rules apply to everyone and that no one is above them.

I’m hoping that Pagunsan’s suspension by the Tour and the stern warning delivered by his major sponsor are just the thing to bring him to the realization that his behaviour is undesirable and potentially injurious to his career. I appeal to him to realize that in the end, this is for his own good and for him to live up to his awesome potential as a golfer. He is world class and arguably the best in the country at the moment. If he shapes up there is no telling just where that potential can take him.

Read the whole story on:http://pinoygolfer.com

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