WHEN Sherwood Hills Golf Club opened in 1996, the course was celebrated as one of the best in the country. Billed as a championship course — long, difficult, filled with hazards — it was reportedly designed by Jack Nicklaus to be a real test of skill, with some saying it was an upgrade of the relatively easy Manila Southwoods course that Nicklaus had also designed.
At the time many reporters, editors, and broadcasters were enticed to take up golf. Their big dream after getting addicted to the game was to become members of a private club, not Manila Golf Club, not Wack Wack , not Sta. Elena, not Alabang, or any club which had for members CEOs and COOs and non-working scions. What many working-class media dreamt of was a modest, private, proprietary golf club they could all be rightful members of.
To many of them, Sherwood Hills was that club. When it opened, membership shares were offered to the media at huge discounts. About a dozen or so grabbed the opportunity. The shares were not only discounted, payments were staggered, and terms were right up the alley of media folk like tap-in birdies.
They paid their installments religiously. Unfortunately, they didn’t play at Sherwood Hills regularly. At best once or twice a month because the country club was tucked in faraway Trece Martires in Cavite and many of them lived in Metro Manila. Going there was ordeal enough but coming home was torture. (Read: afternoon traffic.)
It also happened that in those early years, the economy was beginning to sour and everything was becoming expensive. As temporary club members (they hadn’t fully paid for the shares), there were monthly dues to be paid amounting to a few thousands.

Installment payments started becoming irregular until those who had bought in just stopped paying. Media folk began to accept that country-club life wasn’t for them. They settled into accepting that their memberships were over and that their initial payments were lost to them for good.
They went back to their previous life of playing in public courses which, they can tell you, is not really cheap. Well, the sport itself is not cheap, but that’s another story. Being media though had its perks. They got invited for a round or two by people hoping to get a good press. Mostly, these invites were to posh country clubs, a small thrill for those of them who saw these enclaves as ultra-exclusive.
Meantime, it turned out that the Sherwood Hills management was not done with them. For a long while, bills kept coming regarding overdue monthly payments, something that befuddled media folk who had long accepted they had no more shares.
And each month, it also turned out, the overdue payments just kept increasing. The media guys thought Sherwood Hills would eventually tire of the ritual. Clearly, no one was taking their billings seriously. Indeed, the notices stopped. Until last week when one media guy received another notice. What he saw no one would believe.
Inside the envelop was a bill showing that he owed Sherwood Hills P62,069,612.44! Yes, that’s right, sixty two million pesos plus plus!
Why they even send notices when no one ever answers is beyond the media guys. Think of the effort, the paper work, the stamps and delivery expense, they say, and what you have is a management team that, at the very least, is not into cost-cutting.
One former editor found his bill laughable. He said that with that money he could buy a luxury car or a medium-sized condo and have enough left to buy a share in Alabang or Sta. Elena, such was the craziness of the notice.
His suggestion to Sherwood Hills is to stop this insanity, spend more time making its course better, focus on satisfying its members’ playing experience and, while at it, improve its clubhouse amenities overall. Then it might just raise its current market value of P200K per share.
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