Swaggers,

Another great season has come to an end and it's time to start preparing for our annual Awards Night which will be held at the Bamboo Grill on Saturday, November 15th at around 7 PM. The Bamboo Grill will be closed to the public and will be for our exclusive use. Admission is FREE for Swaggers & their partners; $25 per head for guests.

The little Master and The Student

Mon De Los Reyes

There was a chill in the air as the players walked towards the practice area at Sea Oaks GC for the final game of the year. The Swaggers had their game faces on and were ready to make the last push to win the prestigious Year End Trophy.

Let’s first cover the Championship II tournament winners. Congrats to all the winners.
Champion: Mon D. = net 68
2nd Place: Jojo P = net 69
Low Gross: Peter H. 81
Longest Drive: #17 – Mon D.

Closest to the Pin
#4 – Mon D.
#7 – Jojo S.
#12 – Cary A.
#14 – Mon D.

Now let’s cover the results for the Year End Championship titles starting with Group B. The featured Group B foursome of Jojo “the Gentle Warrior” Punzalan, rookie Ron “the Don” Bruno, relegated Class A players Caloy “International Man of Mystery” Keyes and Beda “the Bad” Bautista, all battled it out through 18 grueling holes. Jojo started a sizzling hot front nine taking a commanding lead. He could not sustain his play at the back nine and lost steam at the finish. Caloy tried to save face by trying to capture at least the Class B crown gave his all to avoid a disappointing year. However his admirable charge on the back nine with 2 birdies came up short and now we question his state of mind from this failure. Consistent play from Swag rookie Ron on both rounds proved to be the deciding factor. He was able to sustain his 1st round lead and capture the Group B title. It’s safe to say that we have new blood in SWAG that will challenge the group next year. Maybe he was well fed during his 1st year with Swag by attending all the other championship celebrations at Pandan and Clark’s BBQ. It’s his turn now.

Lino "The Raging Bull" Emnas

Lino "The Raging Bull" Emnas dominated Tour I at Sand Barrens with an impressive gross score of 74 (-5 net) to take a commanding lead over Jimmy Gochuico (-2) and Cary Africa (-1) in the A divison. In the B division, Roland "Malakas Express" Macasieb sets the pace with a net score of (-4) followed by Ron Bruno (-2) and Charles Keyes/Beda Bautista (0).

The defending champion obliterated the course on his quest to become the next B2B with two early birdies on holes 2 and 4 on the South Course with the sole blemmish being a triple bogey on the South 5th hole. Playing partner Romy "The Aging Uncle" matched The Raging Kalabaw's (oops, Bull's) 37 on the front but aged on the back nine and because a mere spectator.

Unfortunately for Roland, he is not eligible to win the Tour Championship for the B Division since he didn't play the minimum five rounds during the regular season. However, this may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he can't make it to Tour II at Sea Oaks due to a prior commitment. Can you imagine the pain he would be going through right now if he was eligible but could not play? Congrats to Roland for winning his first SWAG trophy.

So the final foursomes this coming Saturday at Sea Oaks will consist of

Class A
Lino Emnas -5
Jiimy Gochuico -2
Cary Africa -1
Mon Delos Reyes 0

Class B
Ron Bruno -2
Charles Keyes 0
Beda Bautista 0
Jojo Punzalan +1

Will Lino be able to manage his game so he plays well enough to win the Tour Championship for the second year in a row but not win Tour II outright so he doesn't have to treat the group again? Will Jimmy "The Psychologist" be able to mess with Lino's head so he falters? Will Cary be able to bring Lino down and retain the coveted "B2B" title that Lino's looking to take from him? Word is Cary injured his rist and is not sure if he will be playing on Saturday. Is this a ploy? Will Mon "The Torero" be able to spear the Raging Bull in the heart and bring him down?

Will Ron "The Rookie" capture his first Tour Championship in just his first year at SWAG? Will Charles and Beda rise to the occassion and avoid being crowned with the Suicide Watch award? Will Jojo come through this year after coming in second last year?

Or will someone else down the list rise to the top? Don't underestimated yourselves as we all have the heart of a championship.

Ferdie the Champ@ Tour #10

These guys are good!!!!
We had 21 eager swaggers ready to play and improve their tour points standings. They definitely took advantage of the soft greens because of the torrential rain the night before. You can tell by the scores where half the field scored under par. This is good news for some but definitely bad news for the bottom half of the players in the tour points standings. Before we go to the tour points standings, we need to acknowledge the awesome golf game that these players performed at Blue Heron.

It definitely shows that they are getting better every year. The eventual champ is no other than Ferdie Umahon. He secured his win by keeping away from those high scores and if he keeps it up, he could probably win our Year end championship in Class A. He already held the trophy in Class B in back to back years but his eyes are now set in getting Class A. Second place was captured by Gerry Aguilera who is also primed to challenge in the Year End championship.

The silent assassin Alex Maranon, had a bulls eye on all the par three's closest to the pin and posted a low 78. Not to be outdone, swaggers Ace, Lino Emnas gobbled up the longest drive hole and had the low gross 77. Congrats to all the winners. To see the complete scores, see attached file.

Now on to our Tour points standings. After Tour 9, we knew that the bottom third of the top 20 was tethering on the cut line. So this last tour definitely changed the standings.

First let's start with the Sayang group. If Mac F. and Beda B. played, they could have moved up to Class A. While Ed A., Vir M., Ron B., and Kelly C. did play, their scores were not low enough to move them up in the standings. Now I present the movers who knocked out the players that were on the Top 20 after Tour 9. They are Felipe G, Dennis D., and Jojo P who all played well at Blue Heron.

Sadly enough, these are the players that were in Class A but will now have to show their "game" in Class B for the Year End Champion. The players that were in the bubble at Tour 9. Max N. - he played so well in Tour 10 that he was able to secure his Class A status. Ferdie U. - what can I say, when the pressure is on, he performs and also secures his Class A status. Lito DG. - unfortunately could not play and this cost him to be pushed out.
Caloy Keyes - was on the cut line and also could not play in tour 10. He was knocked out to Class B by Felipe G who moved in to take his spot.
Jun B. - this was a surprise because of great game of all the players at Blue Heron, it moved the cutline to 7. Unfortunately, Jun could not improve his own score and dropped under the cutline #21. If Jun played better at Blue Heron, our one and only President Peter H. might have been the unlucky #21.

Oca and Romy

SWAG's indomitable powerhouse, Romy Francisco shoots a score of 74 to subdue a field of who's who in the Filipino golf circuit and is crowned the 5th Pilipino Inter Club Open Champion. The SWAG-style 1-2 knockout punch was capped by Oca Briones who confidently carded a formidable score of 76 and waltzes away with the trophy for Group A PICO Champion.

Who could have asked for a better setting? The PICO organizers pushed the players' limit by utilizing the monster yardage of the back tees. Tee boxes were stretch up to the hilltops to require 300 yard drives in order to get a peek at the green. High Bridge GC cooperated by presenting lightning speed greens with tough pin locations that could only be described as PGA's "Sunday pin placements".

Nevertheless, Team SWAG delivers by placing second for the inter-club category. K. Concepcion and P. Clemente took one for the team and signed up last minute to support the outnumbered swaggers. It took 26 SP members to edge SWAG with a mere 5 strokes to take the first spot. SWAG has always prevailed in competition and will continue to do so. Awoo! Awoo!

The beer flowed as the group huddled after the round. Word spread that a certain shaft snapped innocently over a bag. Or someone's personal tournament best was topped by another swagger by 2 strokes. The camaraderie was palpable among the teammates as they consoled the blow-up holes and celebrated the chip-in birdies. Romy lamented on needing a new "escaparate" for his new ginormous trophy. Oca was congratulated for his inhuman play to beat the #1's of other clubs. El Presidente de Pedro rallied the team to a post a great team scoring effort.

Jojo Sanchez
Bethlehem CC Champ

WOW, this Tour #9 was definitely moving day for a lot of players trying to get in the Top 20 tour points standings. The weather was hot, the course was hot (who can beat $41), but the players were hotter. The scores attest to this tightly contested tournament with a lot of red numbers being posted. More than half the field posted net par or better scores after the round was over.

The course was in great shape and the greens challenged your putting skills. Four players ( Lino E., Peter H., Alex M., Cary A.) jockeyed to break 80 but eventual low gross winner, Lino E., pulled away from the field by posting a even par on the difficult back nine showing off why he is still Swags top Ace with a 76.

The battle for the tournament was very tight and rookie Philip H. was leading after the turn. He was trying to get this first win after so many close calls but there were a bunch of players closely behind him.

The back nine was another story as Swag veterans started to catch up and eventually get on top of the leaderboard. Mon D. confidently strolled to the last hole with a minus 5 lead which everyone thought would be the winning number. This however did not last too long as Jojo "Capt. Hook" Sanchez finally grabbed the winning score of minus 6. Aside from winning the tournament, this vaulted his Tour points standing from the bottom of the pack to a secured place in the middle for Group A.

Melvin G.
Locust Valley GC Champ

The forecast last Saturday was scattered thunderstorms and everyone came ready with their rain gear. What they did not expect was a beat down from the eventual champ. Before we go there, we were graced by the presence of a special guest golfer, Samantha Lopez, who came out promoting a comedy show in Tribeca. She promised some members a good time and good laughs if they show up so hopefully we can attend this gig. She also had a golf game that surprised the group.

There was a tight contest for 2nd place with players posting some low scores, but Swag Ace Lino Emnas shot a low gross 74 good enough for 2nd place. Lino always play well in Locust Valley because he also won low gross and came in second last year in this venue. However his net score of 66 was a distant 5 strokes behind the 61 posted by his twin from another mother, Mel "Lethal Weapon" Go. He crushed the field and made sure that this time he would not be denied by shooting the 2nd low gross of 78. After numerous close call from the previous tournaments, Melvin finally sealed the deal in tour #8.

This performance catapulted him to the top in POY and Tour points standings. He showed class in winning by treating the group to Red Robbin after the round soothing the wounds he inflicted to the whole field. It looks like he is the man to beat during this last few games leading to the Year End championships.

We all have 2 weeks to practice for the next tour #9 at Bethlehem scheduled on Aug 16. Register now at http://www.swaggc.org/ if you will play or not.

Kelly C.
Split Rock Champ

Wow, this was probably one of the toughest tours SWAG ever had. Just by looking at the scores, anyone could have won this tour. The course was in perfect condition and the weather was also cooler than expected. You needed to have the "Tiger" focus to bounce back from some tough holes and think of the right strategy in attacking every hole. You know that the course is hard by looking the the scores posted by SWAG, only ONE player broke 90 and the winning score was 1 over par 72.

There were a bunch of players in contention but faded away because of 1 or 2 bad holes. In the end, the eventual winner was the only one who avoided posting the big numbers. He is not a long hitter and he proved that age does not matter. Kelly Concepcion narrowly won the tie break by beating Lito De Guzman on the count back. If not for Lito's disappointing finish on the 18th hole, he could have won his 2nd tour this year. At the end of the day, everybody agreed that although they had a tough time, the course was fair and enjoyable to play in. In Kelly's own words, you need to think of your every shot and execute or else suffer the consequence. Some divine intervention would not hurt your chances too.

Congratulations to all the winners and we have 3 more tours left before the championship rounds. Make sure to register at http://www.swaggc.org/ for the next tour on Aug 2 at Locust Valley.

Champion: Kelly C. Net 71 1st Runner up: Lito DG Net 71
Low Gross: Cary A Gross 87
Longest Drive: Philip H.

Ding Roxas
High Bridge Hills Champ

Tour #6 at High Bridge Hills was truly a test of your golf skills and some luck. It was like playing in the US Open with high fescue that will catch any off line drives and fast greens that will frustrate even the best putters around. It showed on the scores as only hand full of players broke par. You needed to play straight and avoid 3 putts to win. That's exactly what our newly crowned Champ, Ding Roxas, did by going 5 under. He was challenged by Vir Mangonon shooting 3 under par good enough for second place and also shared the low gross 78 with Lino Emnas and Romy Francisco.

We only have 4 more regular tours left so get ready for our next tournament on July 19 at Split Rock GC. This is a new course venue for us so you have time to fix your drives, approach shots, chipping and putting to win Tour #7.

Register now at http://www.swaggc.org/ so Tour coordinators Jimmy Gochuico and Caloy Keyes can confirm player counts before July 19.

Champion: Ding R. net 66
2nd place: Vir M. net 68
Low gross 78: Vir M., Lino E., Romy F.
Longest Drive: Beda B., #10

Closest to the Pin:
Ding R. #4, 13' 6"
Gerry A. #6, 4' 6"
Nobody #8
Orly T. #12, 9' 10"
Mac F. #14

Mon De Los Reyes
Neshanic Valley Champ

It's nice and sunny in Bloomfield today. After a stormy start on Saturday, we waited for an hour for the thunderstorm to pass. When play resumed, it turned out to be nice and sunny the whole afternoon. However, there was a storm brewing in the golf tournament with players posting very low scores. At the end, a stellar performance by Mon delos Reyes finally breaking 80 posting his best score of 78 secured the tour Championship trophy. Close at second place was Gerry Aguilera who again was playing well until an ill timed quadruple bogey on the 14th hole hampered his bid to win a 2nd title. Low gross score of 77 was posted by Cary and Alex with even par 36 on each nine but was still not good enough to overtake the lead.

Congrats to all the winners and we have 5 more tournaments left to secure your spot for the Year End Championships.

Sign up now at http://www.swaggc.org/ for Tour 6 at High Bridge Hills GC on June 14.

Champion: Mon delos Reyes, net 63
2nd Place: Gerry Aguilera, net 65
Low Gross: Cary A. and Alex M, gross 77
Longest Drive: Meadow #9: Cary A.

Closest to the pin:
Meadow #3: Philip H., 23' 4"
Meadow #6: Ding R. & Pete C., 8' 3"
Lake #3: Phillip H. 6' 6"
Lake #8: Alex M. 17' 5"

Thanks again to all the players for making this another successful tournament.
Please sign up early for Tour #6.