2015 Philippine Independence Day Tournament Hosted by PhilSwing

By: Maria Girlie Pascual

 

The ladies had a big job to do last Sunday, June 14. They had to host the 34th annual Philippine Independence Day Tournament, the most successful event in the history of the Fil-Am golfing community of Chicago. Golf Guru and Philippine Golf Club or PGC founder Bert Roman is the one credited for its inception in 1981. Since then, PIDT has grown from a handful of golfers just looking to celebrate Philippine Independence Day of June 12, to a whopping 14 teams this year and an average of about 200 players annually, attracting even out-of-state golfers like the Fullswing League of St. Louis, Missouri, to come and compete with their compatriots in the Windy City.

Clarita Reuer, a well-known figure in the golfing circuit, is the founder and leader of Philswing. Rising to the challenge of hosting this year’s event, she successfully navigated the whole strenuous and painstaking process of putting together this tournament with the help of loyal members that I know well, having co-founded Philswing (Philippine Society of Women in Golf) in 2009 with Clarita and Grace Dysico. Original members Ching Schneider, Yoly W., Mary Dy, Susan Castro, Maribel Mendoza, Aissa Pactol, Helen Aninag and Clarita’s mentor Dr. Bay Galvez, who all pitched in to pull the event off…and pull it off they did. Maribelle Kim, former AAGI member, and other Philswing ladies like Ces Caguiat, official photographer with her handsome son Anthony, were also hard at work that day.

From the rainy forecast, to trying out a new 10-man team system, to bucking tradition by limiting the number of golfers to facilitate pace of play, to last minute drop-outs and submissions, these tough women managed to organize a great event while keeping their own sanity. There was the buffet line that fed the multitude, rows of new golf bags, shiny boxes of new golf balls, ball pickers, sponsored free foursome games, cash prizes, trophies, spa days and even bonsai plants that were raffled off, and gleaming big trophies that were handed out to the winners. The normally long round of 6 to 7 hours, lasted only 5 and a half hours total, which was a great feat considering the very wet fairways and “cart path only rule” and the scores were tabulated as soon as the last dinner group was done. Like I said, only a woman can get a man’s job done, but I would like to brag that AAGI, my team, held the fastest round at 5 hours 3 years ago, and yours truly was the President at that time, a woman, of course. (No insult to the men…remember your mothers.) All in all, kudos to Clarita and “her girls,” as she likes to call them, for a job well done.

The official results are:
Overall PIDT Team Champion: The Tamaraw Golf League
Overall Men’s Low Net Champion: A Tie between Class A Player Ron Ada
and Class C Player Ronald Ross both from Tamaraw
Class AMen’s Champion: Raul Ecijan of FLOG
Class B Men’s Champion: Chris Villanueva 11 of The Niners Golf Glub
Class C Men’s Champion: Pat Mangulabnan of the Philippine Senior Golfers’
Association or PSGA

Overall 2015 Ladies Champion:

Seiko Kawata of Philswing Next year’s hosting club will be the Fil-Am Golfers of Lake County and they are looking for everyone’s support again. A special thank you to Mr. Michael Chinn of the Broken Arrow Golf Club in Lockport, Illinois, for another great job in working with our Filipino golfing community.

Until then, “Mabuhay ang Pinoy,” see you all on the green!

(1) Congratulations to Philswing for a successful first time hosting the annual Philippine Independence Day Tournament.; (2) Philswing ladies hard at work at the 34th annual PIDT.

(1) The winning team of 2015 Overall Team Champion, the TAMARAW League with a tie for their Class A Players Champions, Ron Ada and Ronald Ross; (2) PIDT founder Bert Roman’s team, PGC, still the largest team yearly.

(1) The Philippine Senior Golfers Association or PSGA with 2015 Class C Champion Pat Mangulabnan (Third from right); (2) The Flog Team with Class A 2015 Overall Champion Raul Ecijan in front.

(1) Girlie’s team, the AAGI Golfers with club President Rowel Plata, ( fourth from right) the officers and members; (2) AAGI past president Ray Agbunag with ladies from Philswing- Maribelle Kim on the left, Helen Aninag on the right and Tammy Kline of AAGI below

(1) Dolly Buenaventura of Fullswing Golfers of St.Louis Missouri with 2015 PIDT Ladies Champion Seiko Kawata of Philswing; (2) Fullswing of St. Louis, Missouri joins for the second time the PIDT

(1) Seiko Kawata-Japanese Philswing member wins the 2015 PIDT Overall Ladies Champion awarded by team mates Clarita Reuer and Dr. Bay Galvez; (2)Ronald Ross, Class C player, is one of the winners of the 2015 PIDT Overall Men’s Champion-he ties the title with Ron Ada, Class A player, both from Tamaraw.