Remember Mario Manubay?

Mario Manubay at his “home and office,” the Veterans GC’s driving range.

Out there at the far corner of the Veterans Golf Club driving range in Quezon City is a short, rather unimposing figure giving instructions to his students.

“Left should dominate the backswing,” he says. “Don’t let the right to overpower the swing. You are loosening your grip. Eyes on the ball!”

It’s easy to see that Mario Manubay knows what he’s doing. As in the cliche, he’s been there, done that.

There was a time when Manubay was on top of the country’s golf scene. Before stunning the foreign-flavored field and winning the 1986 Philippine Open at Villamor Golf Club in Pasay City, he was one of the land’s top amateurs and represented the Philippines in the World Cup, Nomura Cup, Putra Cup and the Southeast Asian Games.

From his modest earnings in professional golf, Manubay, who just turned 60, managed to send his four children through college. One of them, Renz Marion, now works as a nurse at nearby Veterans Memorial Medical Center.

“This (Veterans GC) has been my office and home,” says the amiable Manubay, fondly called “Amang” by everyone at the golf club.

At the age of eight, Manubay was brought to Manila from Nueva Ecija by his father, a retired soldier who was then working as a security guard at Veterans.

Always intense and emotional on the golf course, Mario Manubay saved enough prize money to send his four children through college.

“I started out as a pulot boy (ball boy) at the tennis courts, but my brother (Romeo “Boy”) who was then a caddy convinced me to also carry golf bags. I was 13 years old then,” he recalls.

It was the start of a flourishing career for Manubay, who would score a hole-in-one on the 215-yard No. 2 of the Mountain Course of La Quinta Golf and Country Club in California during the 1985 World Cup of Golf. The Philippines wound up in 13th place that year.

In 1991, Manubay had the golden chance to become a repeat Philippine Open champion after he took a one-shot lead going into the final round at Valley Golf Club in Antipolo City. But he blew his bid right on the first hole when his drive landed in a divot.

“Maybe the caddy forgot to fill that divot and my ball went deep in it,” he said.

He never recovered from there and limped home with a 79—out of the top three of the tournament won by American Dennis Paulson.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of his competitive career came in the early 1990s, during a rich leg of the local pro tour at the exclusive Manila Golf Club in Makati. Nursing a one-shot lead going to the last hole and needing only a routine two-putt par from less than four feet to wrap up the title, he succumbed to jitters and three-putted. His focus ruined, he hit his drive out of bounds in the playoff with Mario Siodina and lost.

Manubay retired from pro golf at age 40 in 1997, when he felt he “could no longer keep up on the tour with the young players.”

“I still play every Monday with my fellow teaching pros and when I have students doing the fairway,” said Manubay, who used his P150,000 prize money from his Philippine Open victory as down payment for his house in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

Indeed, golf is not just a profession for Manubay, it’s his life.