Philippines Golf Academy

The Founder’s Cup of The Orchard Golf and Country Club has blossomed into one of the most popular member-guest tournaments in the country. This year the club held the 14th staging of the event and the turnout was fantastic.

To hear The Orchard’s president, Conrad Benitez tell it, The Founder’s Cup was established as a way to reciprocate the invitations of the club’s members with their hosts at the member-guest tournaments at other golf clubs. As you all know, this is when the club puts its best foot forward, showering entrants with giveaways, complimentary food and drink and abundant raffle prizes. This is the time when the golf course is also at peak condition and the greens are at their quickest. It is the best time to play golf.

It is here where The Orchard takes a back seat to no one.

The registration process is the quickest and most efficient I’ve ever experienced. You get your passport, scorecard and daily coupons, drop the raffle stub into the bowl and off you go. Any charges are already on the passport. The lockers are similarly organized and yours will be in close proximity to that of your partner and will have your name on it. Very nice touch. There are complimentary cocktails and a raffle every day of the tournament. Then there’s the grand raffle where there’s always a car or two at stake.

But it is the condition of both courses that really makes an impression. Now let me preface my next comment, by stating that The Orchard is one of the busiest clubs in the country and they do not close the courses down to prepare them for any of their tournaments. It is a wonder how they get the courses into such good shape. The fairways were immaculate. The bunkers were perfect. The greens were superb; although some thought them a bit unreasonable. The greens on the Palmer Course were rolling at about 12.5 when we played them on Friday afternoon. A four-putt on my second green surprised me no end and affected me for the rest of the round. Stories abounded in the club that the greens on the Player Course were faster still. But that’s what you expect when you play a golf course at a tournament of this magnitude. You want to play the golf course at it’s best and that’s what you get at The Orchard.

The effect on the members is altogether all too evident. I played with fellow Pinoygolfer Dondi Primicias (JuanSeries) and to sit with he and his group and to listen how proud they were of their club speaks volumes. No politics, no criticism, just unbounded pride of the club.

So it was a particular joy to be able to play well enough to place second in Class A. Poor putting on our first day on the Palmer Course did us in and it took a tremendous scoring round on the Player Course to get us back in the running. Kudos to my buddy Jack Roxas and his partner Brett Butler for beating us out of first; the 81 point aggregate score on the Palmer proved to be more than enough for us to surmount and in the end we were very glad to finish second.

To The Orchard’s board of directors, management, staff and grounds crew, I say BRAVO! Hope we can do this again next year.

Pics from our Founder’s Cup:

Class A champs Brett Butler and my buddy Jack Roxas

My hosts and new-found friends

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

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