Chris Tiu, Kiefer Ravena, James, Yap, Vince Hizon and Joseph Yeo are just some of the current and former PBA players who are hooked on golf. But in terms of skills, they're all chasing this one guy.
LIKE Michael Jordan, a number of PBA stars like to spend time away from basketball playing golf, the love affair usually becoming more intense after they retire.
Golf is actually the polar opposite of basketball. The game is slow. Players don't react; instead they try to hit an unmoving target. Basketball is all about scoring more points; the object in golf is to put the ball in the hole in the least number of shots.
Yet basketball players are drawn to it, mostly because of the unique challenges presented by golf which often leave proud alpha males look like fools while trying to hit a small, bedimpled ball straight and out of trouble.
Take Jordan's words for it.
"[In] golf, I’m kind of by the seat of my pants," basketball's GOAT. "It drives me totally, totally insane that I can't capture those fundamentals each and every day to be as consistent."

The PBA and the world of golf have always had a certain kinship thanks to Tommy Manotoc, a grand slam-winning coach of Crispa, U-Tex and San Miguel who at one point also served as the pro league's deputy commissioner.
Manotoc, in case you don't know, also happens to be among the top amateurs in Philippine golf. Of all time.
Officials and coaches past and present are also avid golfers. Former commissioner Noli Eala is a fixture in fairways. So is five-time PBA Coach of the Year Chot Reyes, who used to be an 8-handicapper and now carries an index of 11.6.
[Editor's note: a golf handicap is a numerical measure of a golfer's potential that is used to enable players of varying abilities to compete against one another. Better players are those with the lowest handicaps]
Another former Gilas Pilipinas coach, Tab Baldwin, loves the game - and can in fact hit it a mile. It seems the only thing that can take him away from his coaching chores at Ateneo is a round of golf in a serene course somewhere.

These days, more and more PBA players past and present are hitting the fairways during their spare time - some more often and more serious than others, and some picking up the game just recently, and all, for sure, having a grand time.
Take the case of Chris Tiu, who was able to maintain his single handicap while playing in the PBA and running his businesses. He figures to be playing better in retirement, more so with two-time LPGA champion Jennifer Rosales as his teaching pro.

Former Ginebra guard Vince Hizon is another golf nut, and so are Chito Loyzaga of the Jaworski-era Gin Kings, former U-Tex guard Fritz Gaston, and Joseph Yeo, who played to a handicap index of 10.1 even during the tailend of his PBA career.
Want to see this guy swing? Check it out.
NLEX star Kiefer Ravena went from duffer to golfer in no time. He picked up golf shortly before he was drafted by the Road Warriors and soon was spending as much time as he could in the links - and getting better at such quick pace.
Last we checked, Kiefer's handicap was in the mid-10s. Better yet, he has also lured girlfriend Alyssa Valdez to the fairways.

Like Kiefer, James Yap only picked up the game just recently, but there's no doubt he's pretty serious. The two-time MVP is often seen in courses in and around Metro Manila, constantly working on his game. One golfer who has seen him play expects James to be quite good in no time.
Why?
"James has soft hands," he says.

If we talk about the best, Alfie Almario deserves mention. The former NCC and SMB forward retired in 1990 to focus on coaching and golf. Friends say Alfie got his handicap down to as low as 3 before he died of a heart attack in 2001.
RJ Rizada, a former FEU forward who played for Powerade and Petron in the PBA and San Miguel in the ABL, is another standout. RJ says he was hooked from the time a team executive took a number of FEU players to the driving range during his time in the UAAP.
Now RJ carries a handicap index of 5.4 and is good enough to represent his club in national tournaments. Just a few months ago, he helped Tagaytay Highlands finish second in the Founders Division of the PAL Interclub just before the lockdown.

But if you want to know who the best is, he's none other than Jorge Gallent, the former FEU forward and now one of the assistant coaches at San Miguel Beer.
How good?
Well, Jorge, 51, is a scratch player, meaning his handicap is 0. The son of former pelotari George has won the last six club titles at Alabang Golf and Country Club and three of the four Mango Tee championships with Junjun Plana.
Gallent and Plana are actually contemporaries in junior golf, but the former hardly picked up a golf club for 15 long years as he pursued a basketball career from De La Salle Zobel to FEU to Tanduay where he played two seasons in the PBA.
He didn't take the game seriously again until he retired to take on coaching jobs, first with the Rhum Masters and later with Absolut, Welcoat Paints and Harbour Centre in the PBL and with Purefoods and now with the Beermen in the PBA.

Gallent has been a scratch player for the past three years, which is a surprise considering he hardly goes to the driving range. "Di uso sa akin 'yan," he says. The rare times he goes, Jorge says he hits no more than 20 balls.
What he works on, he says, is his short game.
"'Yun ang crucial, so that's what I practice," Gallent says. "Kasi in one round, you won't hit all the greens in regulation naman. May be eight, nine times. So the times that you [miss the green], you've got to be able to save shots."
Gallent said his biggest asset are the fundamentals he learned in junior golf, saying, "kapag masama ang palo mo, you can always go back to the basics that you learned at an early age."

He now plays three times a week, mostly at Alabang or sometimes at Southwoods where he is also a member. But playing golf is not even the best part.
"The best part is after the game," he says, "when you share stories and make new friends." Aldrin Quinto
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