The PAL Interclub: Changing but still rooted in tradition
It is one of the fortunate happenstances in my life that I became involved with the PAL Interclub.
Way back in 1986 when I started my career in golf as the Club Officer of the Camp Aguinaldo Golf Club, I was team captain of our team that won the Founders Division championship. From then on, the tournament fascinated me. I saw and realized what it meant to Philippine golf.
I saw how clubs prepared for this tournament with try-outs for members, I heard stories about the pressure of participation in the Interclub over bottles of beer, I also felt the surge of pride you experienced when you were chosen to represent your golf club in a national tournament.
The who’s who in local golf played in this tournament. The rich and famous, the top amateurs, the hacienderos and everyone who took golf seriously were brought together to play in what has been called the de facto club championship of the country.
A tournament that has this effect on Philippine golf has to be special. Hundreds of golf tournaments are organized and held all over the country every year and these tournaments offer hole-in-one prizes, giveaways, food and raffle prizes to attract golfers to play in these events.
For the PAL Interclub, the participation is the attraction. There are no smart TVs and refrigerators and oven toasters up for raffle here — this is all about competing for your golf club and showing which club is the best in your division in that edition of the Interclub.
You don’t reach your 77th year if you are not special like the PAL Interclub and therefore we need to treat this tournament in a very special way. Kudos to PAL Management for supporting the Interclub every year in spite of closures, pandemics, ownership and management changes and everything that has been put in its way.
The challenge that the Interclub faces today is how to adapt to the changing times while still abiding with the format and systems that has enabled it to become a lasting tradition of Philippine golf. While changes and improvements will become necessary in the future, it needs to protect its unique format that makes it challenging for both the players and the team captains. Good players will make the team competitive but proper fielding and team management will matter more as the competition goes on.
And so for the 77th PAL Interclub we have made some changes and improvements:
– We have returned to the 10-man team with 5-to-play, 4-to-count format for the Men’s Regular tournament. This is the format that the tournament adopted when it started so making it 4-to-play, 3-to-count was going against tradition. There are other ways to increase the number of teams participating other than decreasing the number of team members.
– For the classification of teams we have revived the use of the PAL Point Average (PPA) of players to compute for the team average. The PPA is based on player performance in past Interclubs and is a far better and fairer indication of a players ability than handicaps. Perhaps if or when our handicapping system is really fixed, then we can consider using handicaps again. As it is, no one can trust our handicaps anymore.
– To accommodate more teams we have increased the tournament playing days from 4 to 5 days. Interest in joining the Interclub has increased over the years and adding playing days is the way to allow more teams to play and compete.
– A Practice Rounds Reservation System has also been put into place to allow every team a chance to play a practice round on both of the host clubs. As a reward and incentive for the podium finishers of the previous Interclub, they will be given an early chance to book their practice rounds before everybody else.
– To show respect and understanding for our Super Seniors who are 70 years old and above who have been participating and supporting the Interclub for all these years, we have created a shorter course for them. They can now tee off from the Green Tees and still be competitive.
The future looks great for the PAL Interclub. I look out at the participants and see a lot of young faces excited to compete and looking forward to play again next year. Looks like the Interclub tradition will surely live on and to be involved with the PAL Interclub today as the Tournament Director is an experience that I value and treasure.
Fervent thanks to PAL Management for giving me their continued trust and confidence.
