Several times, I’ve shared my love of golf here. I guess I do get kinda-sorta boring at times, talking about my love of not only golf but also baseball, especially my Atlanta Braves. But that’s who I am. And once again, I have a wonderful tale to tell about playing golf, except this time, not on my local links but on a course 10,000 miles away from my home.

That’s just a mountain straight ahead, not a volcano. The volcano is farther to the right and much bigger and taller!

As most of you know, we recently had to journey to the Philippines due to the loss of Lynndee’s mother. Though a sad time, it was also a time of bonding with family and friends. But even more surprising to me was the fact that my father-in-law, out of the blue, asked me if I’d be interested in playing a round of golf the week after all the services for Mama Beth. He loves golf just as much as I do and I guess this was a way for him to deal with his mourning and move on.

Me and Dad, ready to hit ’em!

Just last year when we spent a month in the Philippines on vacation, he had taken me to the Dole Plantation Country Club to play which was a magnificent experience, playing golf while surrounded by acres of growing pineapples. This time, however, we had to go to another course; his friend who is a country club member wasn’t available so we had to go to a public course.

Swingin’ away!

This course, however, was roughly an hours drive from General Santos City, Lynndee’s hometown. Unfortunately, after the long drive, on arrival we discovered that though they did have clubs to rent, the one thing they didn’t have was left-handed clubs, and me being a lefty, that shot that opportunity all to pieces.

So we hit the road and headed back, stopping on the way to eat some great Filipino food. But then we headed to Tupi, a municipality near Gensan, where there was a course not yet open. They were still working on building the clubhouse but the course was ready for play, and Lynndee’s dad was acquainted with the owner and he was more than happy to let us play.

Beautiful mountains surrounding the course. And to the far right is an even bigger mountain, the Volcano Mount Matutum.

And what a beautiful way to enjoy the game; the course is in a valley, surrounded by pineapple fields and a range of volcanic mountains flanked by the huge volcano Mount Matutum. This course is near the Dole Plantation Country Club course that I played last year, and from there you can also see the huge volcano while playing. I actually sat at the base of Mount Matutum having a picnic while visiting Lynndee’s cousin who has a retreat there. But the view at the Tupi course was outstanding. It so reminded me of the mountains surrounding my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina; I felt right at home while chasing that golf ball around.

But as beautiful as the scenery was, it didn’t improve my score. Oh well, just more reason to get out and practice even more, which is the only excuse I need to give Lynndee for hitting the links again…(“,)