We played golf last Sunday at our home course, Pueblo de Oro, and, boy, was the course in top shape. Credit goes to the new manager, Kits Pinga, who literally left no stone unturned in preparing the course for the honor of being chosen, along with neighbor Del Monte Golf Course, as the venue for the prestigious 75th Diamond PAL Interclub Golf Tournament.

Many claim the event is the most popular and awaited amateur golf tournament in the country, although the Fil-Am Golf tournament in Baguio City vies for the same distinction.

PAL could not have chosen a better venue. The Pueblo de Oro and Del Monte golf courses in Cagayan de Oro City and Bukidnon are ranked by international standards with well-trimmed lush fairways and manicured greens. Del Monte is one of, if not the oldest (Dr. Julius Drilon insists the Santa Barbara golf course in Iloilo is the oldest) in the country that has produced legends, including Celestino Tugot and Frankie Miñoza.

Pueblo de Oro, designed by Robert Trent Jones II, is a favorite locus for national competitions. It has wide, rolling, spacious, and undulating fairways laced with heart-pounding deep ravines, artificial lakes, and throwback bunkers recently filled with fine Boracay-like white sand guarding the greens.

But this narrative is not about the advantage of holding the sportsfest in Mindanao, making it accessible to Southern par busters, or how the Luisita Golf Club is facing challenges from several clubs to keep its championship trophy in the Seniors category or from the Southwoods Golf Club which last year won in the regular men’s category in Cebu. It is how the yearly competition has impacted the lives of Muslim golf buffs. The event likewise brings back treasured memories of the fascination of Muslims with the event.

Being an octogenarian who had regularly participated in countless PAL Interclub tourneys, I saw firsthand how then strongman Governor Mohammad Ali Dimaporo, whom the media called the Lion of the South, led the Mindanao State University Golf Club in the sports event. Another Muslim Maguindanao leader, Congressman Simeon Datumanong, led the Cotabato Golf Club (both leaders have passed away). You could count on your fingers the number of Muslim golfers circa 1970s. There weren’t many of us. For decades, we were regulars in the tournament. This was, however, interrupted by the secessionist rebellion in Morolandia, the rebel attack on Marawi City, and the ensuing social unrest.

We failed to participate, and following the strict rules of the PAL Interclub management, MSU-Marawi was suspended from participation. But even with our suspension, we continued to play in the event at the invitation of the late Tony Santos, the manager of the Cotabato Golf Club. Still, this time, we carried the banner of Cotabato.

As I told the PAL management then, we could not be having fun playing golf while our house was on fire. It took us a while to convince PAL to reinstate us. I was then a Congress member and had to lobby for our re-entry. Thanks to then-tournament director, lawyer Doming Duerme, and a golf buddy, Jaime Bautista, now Secretary of Transportation, our participation was restored.

PAL has struck a mother lode of goodwill with this sports project, let alone a public relations and promotion coup. It has reaped plaudits for performing corporate social responsibility. Think of the social dividends. At this time, when there is still a smidgen of distrust towards Muslim Filipinos brought about by historical ignorance, religion, and a variance in ethno-culture, any event that groups Filipinos should be encouraged.

In golf, players of diverse tribal identities, although engaged in friendly competition, develop a special camaraderie with their exchanges and banter, ribbing each other. Once on the fairways, they are simply Filipinos bound together by the love of golf, oblivious to socio-cultural and religious individualities — a value that ripples to the rest of society.

I am rooting for my team, MSU-Marawi. Break a leg, Moros!

amb_mac_lanto@yahoo.com