Baltaire Balangauan of Cebu City is nothing like your ordinary golfer. He’s a student of the game.

Armed with the doctor’s degree in Psychology, he should have a better grasp of the ins and outs of the sport that many considers a largely “mental game.”

Yet Balangauan, a director of the Junior Golf Foundation of the Philippines (JGFP), didn’t stop there.

While waiting for the birth of his daughter Tashi in the United States back in 2009, Balangauan enrolled himself in a golf academy.

“So, while Tashi was still in the womb, because of my passion for golf… I really wanted to know the science and the basics of golf,” Balangauan told Tribune Golf via messenger call while driving to Temecula in Southern California.

He was shuttling Tashi, now 14, who was competing last week in the IMG World Junior Championships. The venue of her division (Girls 13-14) is the Country Club of Rancho Bernardo, some 40 minutes away from family home in Temecula.

“I enrolled myself into the academy, while waiting for the delivery because I always envisioned her to be a golfer. It’s the USGTF or United States Golf Teachers Federation in San Diego,” he said.

The course was just for a few weeks but he had to cough off several thousand US dollars for the tuition.

“You would think that with that high tuition, instructors can’t afford to fail you, but it was a tough course,” recalled the elder Balangauan.

“All the while I thought it was just like a recollection.”

But aside from the ability test, there were also written and verbal instruction tests. And in written instructions, the maximum mistake is only two.

The tough grind allowed him to widen his knowledge about golf and he wound up obtaining a license to become a teaching pro.

Now he’s ready to educate Tashi for the ways of the fairways.

Fortunately, he didn’t have a hard time teaching Tashi because, after all, they are a golfing family along with his wife, Dr. Niña Maamo-Balangauan.

“We always travel in group, usually with my brother-in-law Jerom, his wife Julienne and our nephew, Gibson,” said Baltaire. At least, whatever happens, they have a full flight.

As JGFP director for Visayas, Baltaire has always encouraged young golfers in the region to join every jungolf tournament, regardless of which body was organizing them.

There are three bodies which actively cater to local jungolfers, namely JGFP; governing-body National Golf Association of the Philippines; and the pro circuit Junior Pilipinas Golf Tour.

“Even us in Cebu we lack tournaments, because it’s focused in Manila,” Baltaire said.

“So, we take advantage of these tournaments held in the Visayas region. I think in that respect golf will thrive if there’s a wider grassroots development. Like in the States, all golf bodies work around each other in terms of holding tournaments.”

“Of course, it’s not easy. Because golf is costly. It’s not cheap to travel to Manila, stay there for three to four days in a hotel and spend on transportation and everything.”

As a teaching pro, Baltaire ended up not just teaching Tashi but also family members and friends back in Cebu.

He considered himself as a “late-bloomer” having started in golf in his early 20s just as his love affair with basketball began to wane.

He played varsity basketball for the University of San Carlos and then for the Cebu Doctors College. “Until I faced reality (that basketball is not for me),” he said.

Baltaire admitted that he has an “unorthodox swing” but he has kept his handicap between four and six. At his peak, he was a two-handicapper.

“Between me and my wife, it’s Niña who is meticulous (with regard to teaching Tashi). She and her brother Jerom are really hands-on in checking Tashi’s swing,” he said.

“Me, I’m the game coach and I take care of the psychological aspect of the game.”

Yet when this reporter asked about how he “psychoanalyze” the game of golf, even he was perplexed.

“It’s a process. There are several factors that you need to consider and address.

“You have to know the person very well, like his/her psychological and emotional well-being, etc. Even me, I can’t apply it to myself sometimes,” he said jokingly.