Dream golf match set, thanks to CEO’s passion

ZAMORA wants more Filipinos to play golf

It is common knowledge among corporate executives that many multimillion-peso deals are closed during a round—or two—of golf.

But for Salvador Zamora, chair of Menlo Renewable Energy Corp. (MREC), the game offers much more than that.

“That’s where you learn the personality of your business associates, as well as their genuine character,” he says. “For example, you can test their honesty, or if they have a propensity to cheat. How they treat caddies, and how they comport themselves on the course are also indicators of their personality.”

Zamora’s burning passion for the sport recently pushed him to organize a major golf match in the Philippines featuring two world-renowned golfers: Filipino-Australian Jason Day, the world’s No. 1 player, and Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who held the top spot from 2012 to 2014 and now ranked third.

“The last time we had a major event like this was with Tiger Woods in the ’90s. I’ve been attending championships abroad like the British and US Open, and they were not aware that the Philippines is also a golfing destination,” says Zamora.

“In fact, when I would mention the Philippines, [they would ask], where is that? So we would like to put the Philippines on the map as a major golfing destination,” he adds.

The exhibition match, billed “Rory vs Jason: Battle for a Cause,” is happening on Nov. 28 to 30 at Pradera Verde in Lubao, Pampanga.

As the title suggests, proceeds of the event will go to charity, such as Day’s Brighter Days Foundation, which gives housing aid to victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Leyte.

“During Yolanda, eight of [Day’s] family passed away, including the grandmother,” says Zamora, the match’s official promoter and executive producer.

TOP-RANKED golfers Rory McIlroy and Jason Day are coming to PH in November

McIlroy’s Rory Foundation, which works with underprivileged children in Northern Ireland, and the Alagang Kapatid Foundation of TV5, which has programs on medical and social services and disaster relief, are also beneficiaries of the event.

The game, says Zamora, is also meant to attract more people, especially the youth, to get into the sport.

“By bringing in world-class golfers, we hope to encourage the Filipino youth to take up golf. It’s where we can compete [globally]. Doesn’t matter how tall you are,” he says.

Taking his passion for the sport one step further, Zamora has invested in the rehabilitation of the historic 70-hectare golf course in Puerto Azul in Ternate, Cavite, where Tiger Woods once played.

“With Puerto Azul, there was a comment that this was actually the best golf course ever made. It’s a combination of a mountain and ocean course, which is rare,” Zamora says. “The downturn of the economy [and having] not too many players contributed to its rundown state, but now I’m reviving it,” he says.

Zamora also plans to build a new 300-room hotel in Puerto Azul, once a popular weekend destination of the well-heeled crowd.

The rehabilitation and construction is set to be completed before March 2018, just in time for a European Tour-sanctioned event that he hopes to, again, host.

“We’ll have three events there: In March 2018, 2019 and 2020, with European Tour and Asian Tour players. But we can invite individuals, like if Day and Mcilroy would be interested, we could invite them,” says Zamora, “We’re starting out with a purse of $1.5 million in 2018, $1.75 million in 2019, and $2 million in 2020.”

Just like the Day-McIlroy match, the rehabilitation of Puerto Azul is part of Zamora’s mission to create a new generation of golfers.

By next year, Zamora hopes to open a golfing academy, much like the one run by The European Tour in Wentworth in the United Kingdom.

“You have to start [junior golfers] young, at around 12 years old,” he says.

But in the end, how old or young one starts in golf is immaterial, says Zamora, as the sport can be played “for a lifetime.”

“I’ve had an uncle who played until he was 103. So you can start out at a very young age and still keep playing for a century,” he adds.