ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



87 



A Golfer in the Philippines 



By Tom Nicoll 



When, a few years ago, it suddenly dawned 

 on folks that Manila has a really fine golfing 

 climate and that the way to get needed ex- 

 ercise in the tropics is to let a golf ball lead 

 you to it, the big question was where courses 

 could be laid out. 



Granting that vigorous, outdoor-loving 

 people were willing to shake off the tempta- 

 tion to grow lazy in the tropics the next 

 thing was where they should shake it off. 

 There were a lot of them who wanted to play 

 golf provided they did not have to go too 

 far. They wanted to play every blessed 

 day and they knew they could pretty nearly 

 do it in Manila if they could only get to the 



course without traveling half the day in 

 getting there and getting back. 



It seemed fairly hopeless to find a closed 

 in golf course until it was suggested that the 

 Spanish military engineers who planned 

 the walls, moat and campo of the walled 

 city of Manila probably had in mind at the 

 time that the thing would make a fine golf 

 course some day after its usefulness as a 

 military' establishment should be over. 

 Golfing enthusiasts took a trip around one 

 day and it did seem as if those Spanish engi- 

 neers had a head for golf whether they knew 

 it or not. The whole thing was there. Na- 

 tural hazards were there, beautiful grass 



MANILA MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE SHOWING PROXIMITY OP THE MANILA HOTEL TO FIRST TEE WHICH IS NEAR THB 



MONUMENT 



TOM NICOLL, GOLF INSTRUCTOR MUNICIPAL COURSE, 

 MANILA 



greens and faiways were there, and the breeze 

 was always blowing from the bay; and they 

 figured that there woud be sure to be a 

 charm for every hole in the midst of these 

 old world memories. 



And so it has happened that a line of 

 peaceful, white-clad pleasure seekers daily 

 recreate in the shadow of those redoubts and 

 grim battlements which were not to be 

 approached by any man a couple of hundred 

 years ago, and a barrage fire of golf balls 

 rattles occasionally against the moss grown 

 bastions. Those old walls may look down on 

 the green Bermuda grass at their feet and 

 see a lady with a club send a white pill sail- 

 ing through the air as far as the engines of 

 war in use in those days could send a solid 

 shot. 



It proved to be correct that the charm of 

 those scenes would add to the lure of the 



