THE board of directors of the Alabang Golf Club unanimously voted on Monday to annul the victory of two teams in its annual Mango Tee tournament following a huge outcry from participants who protested the scores of the winning tandems.
The decision came two days after the awarding ceremony during which the winners were loudly booed when their names were called to pick up their trophies on stage. The board said their scores were 'highly unusual and statistically improbable' under the game's handicapping system.
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The board, in its decision, asked Ronin Leviste and guest partner Darren Flores, the top placers in the net division category, to return the trophies, as well the trophies given to second placers Raymund Villafuerte and guest partner Edward Tolentino, in the same category.
The board had apparently acted swiftly to arrest the negative impact of the incident on the reputation of the club, which prides itself of having an exclusive pedigree, but because of what happened, was becoming a laughingstock in the golf community.
The Mango Tee, regarded as one of the country’s most prestigious member-guest events, has also seen its reputation scarred because of an apparent failure to act more swiftly when the incident happened in the first day of the tournament when Leviste, a former vice mayor of Lian, Batangas and son of former vice governor Mark, scored a whopping 52 points from a gross score of 8-over-par 80 with a handicap index of 24.
That score has never been seen at the Mango Tee, now on its 38th year, from a player scoring that well with such a handicap. That should have raised a red flag as the score began circulating not only in Alabang but also outside, fanned by social media.
Overall, the team of Leviste (52-47) and Flores (41-40) scored a combined 180 points over two rounds, while Villafuerte (39-44) and Francisco (47-45) had a two-day total of 175.
The decision, the club said, came after the board conducted a “careful review of the investigative report submitted by the Mango Tee Committee and in coordination with the Club’s Golf Committee.”
It said that after the review, the board “decided and unanimously agreed to withdraw the awards conferred” on the two teams.
No other penalties were announced although some Alabang members reportedly were demanding that the players involved in the fiasco, which they said had harmed the club’s reputation, should have their membership suspended or banned from playing in the Mango Tee again.
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