| |
|
The East Course at Wack Wack Golf Club is an old, classic course with
each hole being separated by trees on a flat terrain. The club have two
courses, East and West. The East is a true championship course while the
younger West, built in 2008, is a user-friendly IMG design. The course
name Wack Wack derives from the squawk of the large black crows, used
to inhabit the land, locally known as “Uwak-Uwak”. The East is one of
the premier golf courses in the Philippines and The Philippine Open has
been held here as much as 33 times from 1956 to 2014. it staged the 1977
World Cup, too.
The course has a vast layout whose challenge lies in elevated, small and
often severely sloped greens, water hazards, and lengthy fairways flankered
by mature trees. The fairways are nicely cut but they are Carabao grass,
natural Philippines grass, which occasionally cause the iron heads to be
stuck in the roots of the grass, and give players extra challenges compared
to different fairway grass like Bermuda. The course has a major renovation
for the last one decade and added some 200 additional yards now to an over
7,200-yard-long course by adding and reposition some of teeing boxes, notably
Hole 8, 10 and 12. It has repositioned many of fairways bunkers that used
be easily carried, and make them come into play. Two water hole 7 &16
has changed to look more natural. Now the greens are faster with good rolling,
and the greenside bunkers get larger & deeper. Overall, the East course
has improved a lot and has become much tougher.
Played in January 2005 (old
version)
Scorecard
|
| |
|
|
|
A gently downhill and slight dogleg to the left. If your tee shot
curves to the left too much, a pond will catch it or trees in front
will disturb your second shot and make it impossible to aim for the
green. The bunkers on both sides of the sloping green come into play.
The hole has a large mango tree. |
| |
|
|
|
An almost straight, long and difficult par five. The tee shot is
over a creek, and three bunkers on the right side come into play
and narrow the landing area. There is a ditch on the second shot,
and the accurate shot is required. From around 70 yards to the green,
the fairway turns slightly to the left. The green is elevated and
guarded by two bunkers.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
An almost straight and short par four. At first glance, it looks easy,
but this hole is demanding. The further your tee shot flies, the bigger
trouble you will face. A pond 230 yards off the tee squeezes the narrow
fairway on the left. If you hit to the right to avoid the pond, your
ball will perhaps be in trees, making it difficult to aim for the
green on the next shot. The green is swung to the left, facing the
pond in the front and a bunker on the left. When you successfully
place the tee shot on the fairway, the approach shot over the pond
is easy. |
| |
|
|
|
A signature hole with an elevated green more than 5 meters high. The
trees have squeezed the of opportunities off the tee. The green is
an inverted saucer, and is narrow & deep and slants from the back
to the front, so putting is demanding, too. If your shot doesn’t bite,
it will likely roll down to the one of 6 bunkers guarding the green.
Needless to say, an accurate shot is required on this hole. |
| |
|
|
|
An almost straight, and a tough par four. The tee shot is gently downhill,
and the approach shot is uphill. The creek is running 300 yards from
the tee, and since it is downhill, it is caught by the creek with
a 270-yard drive. A large bunker in front of the green is in play.
The green has an interesting inverted "U" shape, and the
green surface is flat and easy. |
| |
|
|
|
A sharp dogleg to the left and a shortish par four. A bunker on the
right side off the tee will be in play. The green is long with a pond
in the front and bunker left and right. |
| |
|
|
|
A straight par five reachable in two shots, which is a fair "risk
and reward" hole. The second shot is downhill, so it's actually
some 20 yards shorter. The front side and the part of the left side
of the green faces a pond, and the second shot is very demanding
if you decide to aim the green. If you lay up on the second, the
approach shot is to hit from a little difficult downhill lie. The
green is long & narrow, and is protected by bunkers on both
sides. A large tree in the pond overhangs from the left toward the
green, making the approach shot from the left side difficult. Seve
Ballesteros made eagles with a two-iron for two days in succession
at the 1977 World Cup, and won the championship.
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
A slightly downhill, over-a-pond and long par three. The green is
elevated with bunkers on both sides. It is a difficult approach to
save par when you hit a ball over the green. |
| |
|
|
|
An almost straight and demanding par four. On the tee shot, the landing
is narrow with coconut trees on both sides and two bunkers on the
left. The approach shot is slightly uphill onto the long green with
a bunker on the right. The view of high-rise buildings behind the
green seeing from the tee ground create the unique beauty of the landscape. |
|
|
|
|
It takes 20 minutes both from Central Manila and from Ninoy Aquino International
Airport by car. You need to be accompanied by a member to play at the
East Course.
When the club opened in 1931, there was nothing but greenery surrounding
the course. But with the development of the suburbs of Manila over the last
90 years new buildings have gone up one after another around the course.
Nowadays, modern buildings surround the course, which makes the view from
the course unique.
The top 100 golf courses (top100golfcourses.com)
ranked 8th in Philippines Top 30 courses in 2020. There are about 100
courses in the Philippines. GOLF Magazine selected it within 1979 World
best 50 courses.
I stayed at Manila Marriott on the day before I played. This comfortable
hotel is a just 4-minute ride by shuttle bus. Villamor Air Base GC can be
seen from the room. The course has nothing spectacular, but Villamor Air
Base GC is a public course, and very close to the airport. So it is suitable
to play 9 holes before your departure when you have enough time at airport.
My member’s club in Hong Kong and Wack Wack GC are luckily reciprocal,
so I hosted my friend from the US, Bob McCoy. Bob has been one of 100
GOLF Magazine panelists to choose World 100 best courses for many years.
When GOLF Magazine announced the world best 50 in 1979, the East Course
was ranked in at that time, so he wanted to play all those 50 courses.
Bob is a legendary person who played all Word best100 courses by GOLF
Magazine in 1997 in just 100 days. At that time, it was not easy to contact
each golf course or a member of the courses at all, as it now though emails.
All reservations were arranged by his telephones and faxes, and many were
done during his move within 100 days. He didn’t even use a private jet,
and used all regular transportations. What a vitality! The details are
described in "100 Day Trip" on the below site.
Odyssey
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Hole 1 Par 4 422 yards (2)