The 14th edition of the Rotary Golf Fellowship Foundation of the Philippines was a resounding success. The mere fact that Coch wasn't around, the City of Pines would warrant my proclamation.

Every year, our Club would look forward to this golfing event. RGFFP have brought us to different cities around the islands of Philippines such as Bacolod (everyone's favorite), Davao (Coch's favorite for their Durian), Cebu (most expensive) and Cagayan de Oro (most boring). For this year, we were back at the City of Pines.

The last time RGFFP was held at Baguio was in 1997. Up to that year, our Club has been represented. Though known as a breakfast and golfing Rotary Club, our Club has nothing to show for its golfing achievements except for winning the Best Uniform category. As Uncle Mike says, "If you can't play, display!" And display, our Club did until 1997 where we, for the first time, contended and came in 2nd runner-up in the Governor's Division. A break-through year! By the way, our Club was elected to the Hall of Fame for Best Uniform that year.

The 12th edition in 1998, our Club sent one team (from the normal 4 teams) to Davao. Why the small contingent? We can only surmise that it could have been the Asian Crisis or Coch's presence (it was his first time to join RGFFP) in the team. We didn't contend and we didn't win Best Uniform but one individual RCMAer did, Coch! He won the individual award for the most Exercised player of the tournament.

Who says 13 is an unlucky number? For our Club, the 13th edition will be a gauge to all future RGFFP tourney. Held at Cagayan de Oro, our Club came back as Champion in the Governor's Division and 1st runner-up in the President's Division. Was Coch there? Nope! Are you beginning to see the trend here?

This leads us to the 14th edition which I proclaim a success once again. Did we contend? Yes! Did we win? Unfortunately no! What happened? I think our Club will only win if the RGFFP tournament is not held in the same island as Coch. Even though we are 5 hours away from him, the threat of him showing up dampens the chances of our team. Nevertheless, we won the Best Uniform and we finally beat the Rotary Club of Makati-North in head to head competition. Hmmm...what if Coch joins their Club? Nah! We need Coch. He has done so much for our Club and it would have been boring not having him around bashing me every week.
For more on this year's RGFFP, I will rely on the reports of our Baby Rotarians and Dong 1 in this week's Pagkakaisa.