ON SAME FLIGHT

Camp John Hay (CJH) Golf Club general manager Judson “Jude” Eustaquio couldn’t contain his excitement when news of LIV Golf coming to the Philippines broke out on Tuesday morning.

Aside from seeing the world’s greatest golf stars live in action, the blue ribbon event would also reunite Eustaquio with an old pal who blossomed into a three-time PGA Tour and two-time US Open champion — Brooks Koepka.

Eustaquio and Koepka share a special bond.

They attended the same high school — the Cardinal Newman High School — in West Palm Beach in Florida, where they became very good friends on and off the fairway.

Eustaquio said he knew Koepka would be special.

“Well, this was in West Palm Beach, Florida, in a school called Cardinal Newman High School. I am two years older than Brooks,” Eustaquio, who used to be one of the country’s top-ranked junior golfers, said in a telephone interview with Daily Tribune.

“Brooks was very talented because he was two years younger than me. Obviously, if you’re two years ahead at that age, the maturity of those years plays a vital role in your performance. It was fun.”

“He was always very talented. He used to have long, curly hair. He’s not how the media has portrayed Brooks as snobbish and arrogant. He wasn’t like that when we were in high school. He was jovial and a gritty competitor.”

Eustaquio went on to have a stellar collegiate career.

He competed for University of Florida and Florida Southern College in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association, where he emerged as four-time NCAA Gold All-American and Academic All-American.

He was also a two-time Most Valuable Player while playing in the Florida Southern’s Golf Team, where they won the 2010 NCAA Division II Championships, giving him a handsome chance of competing in the US PGA Tour.

But things didn’t go according to plan.

In 2011, he tore his lateral collateral ligament and meniscus, an injury that requires a lengthy rehabilitation process. After enduring the recovery process physically and psychologically, Eustaquio’s knee was never the same again and his dream of competing professionally in the PGA Tour started to fade.

He went home in 2013 to compete in the Philippine Golf Tour while juggling corporate work with Robinsons Land Corporation.

But he realized that the money and effort he put in didn’t give him his desired reward.

“I think I won P30,000 in one tournament which was not enough to recover the expenses I incurred,” he said in a previous Tribune Golf interview.

“I was no longer interested in playing golf for a living.”

Meanwhile, Koepka’s career was on the rise.

He played for an elite golf school — Florida State University — in college and qualified for the US Open as an amateur. Although he missed the cut by six strokes, he still started making a lot of heads turn with his topnotch game from tee to green.

Since turning professional in 2012, Koepka won the PGA Tour nine times, European Tour seven times, Japan Tour two times, Challenge Tour four times and LIV Golf three times while emerging as No. 1 golfer in the world for 47 weeks in 2018.

“When he became a major champion, social media was the only way we could connect,” said Eustaquio, who immediately messaged Koepka’s father, Bob, the moment he learned that the LIV Tour would be coming to town.

“I still keep in touch with his dad and mom because they are not celebrities. The social media is to their own accord. But with Brooks — no.”

The last time Eustaquio admitted that he and Koepka grew apart. In fact, the last time he had seen him was more than two decades ago.

“It was around 2011. I stayed at his apartment on his couch. That was the last time I’ve seen him,” he said.

But if and when the Philippine leg of the LIV Golf pushes through, there’s a strong possibility for two old friends — who were divided by luck and fate — to be finally reunited.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to invite him to Baguio. He’s going to be wanting to spend more time with his kid. He’s a new dad, you know,” said Eustaquio, who became the general manager at Forest Hills before taking a leadership role at CJH in Baguio City a couple of years ago.

“But if it does happen, for sure. I would like to see to it that we get to at least have a beer together. For old time’s sake.”