Iloilo Golf and Country Club - The oldest golf course in the Philippines

About a hundred years ago, very little was known about the game of golf in this part of the world, in the Philippines in general and in Iloilo in particular. Then a year or so after the turn of the century a group of Englishmen came to the country, employed by the Philippine Railway Co. whose purpose was to build the railway that was to connect the City of Iloilo to what was then the town of Capiz now Roxas City. 

Among them were Scotsmen who then and even now are known to be lovers of the game of golf. Venture to say that to satisfy their needs of playing their favorite pastime, they consequently had to build a golf course.

They looked for an area suited for their golf course which they found just outside the rural town of Santa Barbara conveniently located near the route of their railroad about 15 kilometers from the City. And they found that site amid the gently rolling hills. Not much was needed to be done to build a golf course in this area save cleaning level spaces and clearing of some trees. 

The older natives of that generation were heard to say that when the course was laid out the pioneers would hit a succession of shots into various undifferentiated waste of grass and made their estimates of where to place fairways or what were the most intimidating approaches to the imagined greens. This in all probability was how the building of the old course started. This was just before 1907.

The original course was short nine hole layout, just over 2,500 yards, with two par threes and seven par fours. One par three hole was located just at the foot of the hill and stories had it that the first hole-in-one on this course was made on that hole by Mr. Houston, one of the founding fathers.

Later, however, this feat was nullified when it was learned that his forecaddy, in his eagerness to please his employer, tried to improve the lie of the ball with his bare foot. The ball, however, started to roll down the slope to the green and into the cup for an unprecedented “hole-in-one”.

Players then took the train from the city to the station in Santa Barbara and had to carry their clubs themselves or by caddies who waited for them or take a bull cart, if available. In the afternoons they had to take the last train back and oftentimes were seen running through muddy trails to catch the last and o0nly means of transportation back to the city.

Later, quite a few rest houses were built by companies and by members who spent weekends near the club. Most of these were located along the road to the entrance where the parking lot is now situated and on the fairway of the present No. 12 hole.

A bamboo hut was built to serve as a clubhouse. Water was provided for by the natives who carried them in cans from nearby springs. The players then played in breeches and sometimes in coats and ties and used the “gutta percha” or “gutties” and rubber balls.

Discoveries of these kinds of balls which bear markings “Spalding Pat April 11, 1899” attest to the early beginnings of golf in Iloilo and the golf course (Santa Barbara) as the oldest in the country and one of the oldest in Asia. 

Original sand boxes still exists which were in use during the era before the innovation of wooden pegs or tees, which were then provided in every teeing area and contained sand and water in separate compartments. A player, in order to tee-up his ball may scoop sand with his nib lick or nine iron, moisten the sand with water and press it into a small mound and place the ball on top of it.