Golf’s a different game now, at least it isn’t the game I’m used to.
The back-to-back wins of Filipinos this month on the Asian Development Tour prove that it is a young man’s game.
Both in their early 20s and fresh off their NCAA stints in the US, cousins Aidric Chan and Carl Corpus are now making waves among aspiring pros on the Asian Development Tour (ADT).
Aidric won in Vietnam in March and again last week in Morocco. His cousin Carl then won this week, also at an ADT tournament in Morocco.
Now 24 years old, Aidric Chan has been a junior standout for over a decade. I was lucky enough to have played a round with Aidric Chan in 2017 when he was just 16.
It was during the annual Ateneo Challenge Cup when my partner, Carlo Pineda — our college varsity golf team captain — and I were paired with a couple of high school kids.
Not being familiar with our local junior standouts then, I jokingly whispered to my partner that we should “give these kids a little lesson.”
Carlo and I both played college golf and were both carrying single-digit handicaps of around 4 or 5 at the time.
We were feeling pretty confident — figured we could go a couple under par, especially with the modified scramble format working in our favor.
So at our assigned starting hole, the 13th of Palmer at The Orchard, we exchange pleasantries with these two high school kids.
After they told us “Tito, go ahead po”, on the tee, we wanted to beat the crap out of these kids at golf even more.
The format at the Ateneo Challenge Cup is alternate drive, scramble from the fairway, and alternate putts once on the green.
I picked to tee off from the odd holes so “Tito Dino” was first off. I pulled a 4-iron out, teed the ball a little higher than usual, and hit a nice high draw toward the mango tree on the left of the fairway, around 200 yards out.
The 13th hole stretches just over 340 yards, but don’t let the distance fool you — the fairway slopes left to right, funneling everything toward a lake that guards the entire right side.
So my high draw towards the left landed and kicked right towards the middle of the fairway, some 130 yards from the green. Perfect.
Next up was Aidric Chan’s partner, also just 16 years old — though, unfortunately, his name escapes me now. So the kid then takes out the driver (to which I smirked, thinking he wasn’t long enough to hit the iron off the tee), smashes it 300 in the air, and only leaves them 20-30 yards to the green.
The 13th is tight, with OB left and water right, but it didn’t seem to matter to these kids. They proceeded to pitch it to gimme birdie range, and we “titos” played to the middle of the green and came away with two-putt pars. Kids -1, Titos - 0.
The day went on along the same lines. On the very next hole, the dogleg-right par 5 14th, Carlo took an aggressive line and cut the corner, leaving us with just about 190 yards to the green.
Aidric aimed well right of the corner and hit a towering fade, probably carrying 310-320 yards and rolling right, closer to the green. We were hitting 4 and 5 irons for our second and they had sand wedge from 90 yards.
At 468 yards, Aidric cut off most of the hole and played the par 5 like a short par 4. Again, the kids birdied, and the titos made par.
All day long, Aidric was casually hitting 260-yard knockdown draws with his driving iron and carrying his 3-wood 280 to 290 yards — like it was nothing. I’m not even exaggerating — I checked the yardage myself.
He hit it right and carried the house to the right of Palmer’s 9th hole with a 3-wood. I was sure he hit it OB right but was shocked to see his ball carry comfortably over the house. He was just 16, he wasn’t even fully developed physically yet.
Needless to say, the kids beat the Titos quite easily. They probably shot an easy gross 65 to our 73 or 74.
It was humbling. It was impressive. It was golf played by kids who swung with freedom, precision, and effortless power.
These skinny teens were blasting drives 50-70 yards past us all day. They were hitting wedges when we had mid-irons, and they had short irons when we were taking the covers off our woods and hybrids. It was no contest.
I know Aidric and Carl are just starting their journeys and have a lot to learn. But their wins are encouraging — proof that local golf is heading in the right direction.
Sure, size will always matter, but believe me, our boys are long and strong enough to hang with the big boys. I hope they can build on their early successes and serve as an inspiration to the up-and-coming local juniors. Best of luck to you boys! From: Tito Dino
P.S. As if we needed more proof that golf is a young man’s game, 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter goes on and wins the Rocket Mortgage on the PGA Tour via a playoff. These kids !!!