THERE was a time when golf courses were severely criticized. Those days came in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when mass protest was at its height, when firebrands, in rallies at Plaza Miranda, Mendiola, Lawton and other hotspots, would call for their dismantling, with promises to convert them into rice fields.
Or into playgrounds for the poor.
The Manila Golf Club inside Forbes Park in Makati was a favorite target, obviously as the symbol of extreme wealth. (Indeed, current cost per membership share there is about P190 Million.)
“After we take over the mansions and palaces inside Forbes Park, we will turn the golf course into farmlands,” I recall one fiery speaker saying, as the crowd — made up of unemployed kanto boys, construction workers, lowly paid office employees, and marginalized students — whooped it up, happy to take potshots at the country’s super-rich, then as now, live behind the high walls and fortified gates of the Makati enclave.
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It feels like déjà vu. The mayor of Manila, clearly not a golfer, wants to convert the Intramuros Golf Club into a forest park and playground for city folk, saying the space is just too nice and too luxurious to leave only to the moneyed. Which, by his thinking, are the golfers with their colorful pants and tops, special shoes and pricey clubs.
Mayor Isko Moreno, a former actor turned politician and today self-proclaimed pro poor, has no sympathy for golfers posturing in Manila’s one and only golf course, golfers who find the Intramuros course the most accessible and cheapest place to raise their game to another level or get their chosen exercise.
Moreno submitted his proposal to Malacañang, during which time he met President Bongbong Marcos, a non-golfer whose father, Ferdinand Sr., by contrast, was an avid practitioner. At the meeting, Bongbong nodded and smiled like he understood what the mayor was talking about.
When news appeared saying the Intramuros course might soon be gone, golfers trembled, much the same way they do when facing a slippery three-foot putt.
Following the Moreno pronouncement, supporters of the game went ballistic, attacking how this would obliterate one of the few open spaces in the city, create bedlam where once there was peace and quiet except, maybe, for the occasional shrill cry from a golfer who’s just missed a short putt.
There were other arguments forwarded, too many to enumerate, but here are some anyway: The golf course attracts tourists, raises revenue, saves the walls of Intramuros, gives off a nice smell in contrast to the smell that is sure to float about when the crowd finds no portable toilets at hand.
There is no word as yet if Moreno has been swayed by the protests, which include those from the Department of Tourism that’s been promoting golf to foreigners to attract more visitors with, admittedly, little success.
Meantime, a guy from the DoT, Mark Lapid, also with showbiz roots and head of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority or TIEZA, and, by the way, an avid golfer, has taken the thunder from Moreno.
While no golfer was looking and while Moreno was busy cleaning up Divisoria, Lapid, a former Pampanga governor, son of action star Lito Lapid, and sometime boyfriend of Kris Aquino, declared, suddenly and unilaterally, that the Intramuros Golf Club would be open to anyone on Sundays. It is now officially a public park, at least for one day.
People can camp there, have picnics, walk around the fairways just like those dudes with caddies and weird implements. They probably can even go fishing in the many water hazards that adorn the course. Just don’t mess with the greens, guys, he said. They should stay pristine for the players who will have Intramuros six out of seven days.
And as though Lapid were planning to run for another public office, he declared that the entrance would be free for the public every Sunday.
According to reports, there were few takers during the first Sunday, but more came on succeeding Sundays. Many city folk were expectedly happy to have a new place to go to, although they may have been unused to wet, soft grass and absent food stalls. Or any shade from sun and rain. Or places to pee.
Meantime, golfers will be happy to learn that the golf course remains open, Monday to Saturday. There’s also night golf, the only one in Metro Manila. Green fees from P1,100 to P1,500 for locals, higher for foreigners.
Meanwhile, if you hear a shrill cry of anguish while picnicking or playing at the course, it’s not coming from Moreno or Lapid but probably some dude who just stepped on something soft and sticky.
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