Dubai: Filipino Golfers in the Middle East (FIGME) Golf Society, who have recently tied up with MyGolf Dubai, shared their plans with Gulf News in an exclusive interview. Following are the excerpts:
QUESTION: What are you all doing today here at MyGolf Dubai?
FIGME: The Filipino Golfers in the Middle East (FIGME) is a non-profit organization founded in May 2008, currently with 220 members. Altogether 16 people are playing here at MyGolf Dubai, Dragon Mart 2 in a summer FIGME golf event called Journey to St Andrews. Today we are playing an 18 hole tournament over the Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, venue of last week’s Open Championship, won by Cameron Smith (Aus).
Our FIGME Golf Society began in 2008 with just six founding members, with two still active founding members remaining to this day in the UAE. It is worth mentioning that the six of the founding members are Ramon Navea and Randy Lanza (both in UAE), Chito Albay, Emil Cabalda, Erwin Apua (all three in Philippines) and Jon Williamson (RIP).
Tell us more about your membership?
It is not just for the Filipino golfing community. 60% of the FIGME Membership are Filipinos and the remainder are Asians, Africans, Americans, Australians, Europeans, etc. In total, we have 17 different nationalities represented in our FIGME Membership.
How many events do you play as FIGME?
We hold our FIGME golf events, on average, twice a month throughout the year, both in the summer and winter. We recently held a Game Changers versus Eid Al Adha event at Al Zorah Golf Club with 24 participants.
In summary, we have seven major tournaments a year, including: Seasons Open, Countdown to The Masters, Philippines Freedom “Independence” Invitational, our FIGME ‘Ryder Cup’ (Clash of the Titans), Club Championship, Winter Open, Year End Yuletide Cup and the rest are 12 regular ‘Minors.’ Our Major events usually attract 60 + members to participate.
We especially thank MyGolf Dubai and eGolf Mega Store for their support and sponsorship of our FIGME initiatives, who have both officially become partners of FIGME in Q3, 2022
Explain the culture of FIGME?
FIGME: It is an organization which promotes camaraderie, fellowship, sportsmanship and imbibing the culture of social responsibility by giving back to the wider community through our CSR programmes via our platform of golf. Our FIGME mantra is LLG: Live, Laugh and Golf in no particular order!
We have three pillars of our FIGME Membership Charter; Our Core Values - responsiveness, team spirit and best practice and these are incorporated in the membership form signed by every Member on joining FIGME.
For example, a year ago, we supported a 13 year-old Filipino golfer, who wanted to travel from the Philippines to the US to play in golf tournaments. This was one of our charity projects we have been involved with aside from the support we share to Bantay Bata 163 from previous years.
Our next FIGME event is to be held on Saturday (August 20) at Al Zorah Golf Club, followed by September 3 at MyGolf Dubai over Pebble Beach Golf Links and the end of our summer events culminate with The Clash of the Titans XIII (Asia & South Africa vs The World), supported by Mediclinic Middle East and Al Ghandi Auto.
We thank FIGME Golf Society for their time, especially Ramon Navea - Chairman & Founding Member; Randy Lanza (Founding Member) - Logistics Officer; Rufino Canlas ~ Handicap Secretary & Order of Merit Officer; Joey Halago & Greg Gonzales - Membership Officers; Joseph Mogallos - Logistics Officer.
Results of FIGME event
Old Course, St Andrews, MyGolf Dubai Simulators
Format: Two-Man Team Full FIGME Handicap Better Ball Stableford event.
Champion: Leighton Johnson (16) & Michel Augier (16) 48 Points.
1st Runner Up: Rufino Canlas (14) & Eric Kimal (8) 44 Points (CB)
2nd Runner Up: Gershon Marais (19) & Rani Bernardo (18) 44 Points.
Nearest the Pin Hole 8 - Louis De Villiers
Longest Drive Hole 5 - Leighton Johnson
