Anything Under the Sun
Iloilo Golf and Country Club
Next year (2007), the Iloilo Golf and Country Club is celebrating its centennial anniversary through its Centenary Committee led by Herminio Maravilla.
In 1983, the Iloilo Golf and Country Club (originally Santa Barbara Golf and Country Club) also celebrated its diamond jubilee. Founded in 1907, it claims to be the oldest golf course in the Far East.
Proof of this ancient claim are two balls marked Wright and Ditson and Spalding and Pat, both dated 1899 recently found when the old golf course was dredged.
The club was founded by thirteen Scots who were workers of the Philippine Railways passing Santa Barbara. They were: Mssrs. Houston, GA. Less, E.J. PFleider, Circa, R.R Hancock, E. Black, Gleen, Holden, F. Powell, W.E. Greenbaum, E. McCreary, Sage and Schradic.
The first club house was a nipa hut under a big acacia tree where the natives used to bring drinking water in cans.
In the 1920s many Ilonggos joined the club like Mariano Cacho (the first Filipino to make a hole in one), Oscar Ledesma, Tomas Confesor, Eugenio Lopez, and Fernando Lopez.
The club is affiliated with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland - the ruling body of Commonwealth golfing nations until World War II.
Its course started as a short 9-hole layout just 2,000 yards with two par three's and seven par four's. It was designed by Bill Shaw who was later to design the Wack Wack Golf course in Manila.
At present, it is now an 18-hole golf course where many golf greats had played like Spanish champion Murcillos, E.J. Dutch Hanon, Dick Mertz, Johnny Bulla and Marty Fugal.
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The first set of five booklets (Books 1 to 5) of West Visayas Beautiful and Wonderful authored by this writer is now available at P500 at his office address at No. 4, Santa Ana St., Molo, Iloilo City 5000 (tel no. 337-3045).We are starting the second set (Books 6-10) this January.