I first met Lito when I joined SGCI in 2005. At that time he was the president of the club. During his term as the President of the club, he transformed the club into one of the most successful golf clubs in the greater Los Angeles area. He became one of the most effective leaders in the history of SGCI where he fundamentally changed the way the club operates by implementing common sense policies. He laid the foundation for hosting well-organized tournaments that are held on a monthly basis on high end golf courses instead of implementing an old policy in which tournaments were usually held at county maintained or municipal golf courses.
Additionally, he adopted the point system where members earn points for each tournament throughout the season and the player who accumulates the most points at the end of the season will be crowned the club champion. and will represent the club to compete with the other clubs at the tournament of champions sponsored by SCGA that is usually held in Palm springs and with all expenses paid by the club. As a result, Club’s membership increased significantly and tournament’s attendance sets an all-time high. Most of these policies were subsequently carried out by his successors.
SGCI have come long way to rise to the level of success where we are today. This success was attributed from the effective leadership from past presidents to current president and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of them who are here today. First of course our founder, Mr Lito Vallejo, who is currently in the Philippines trying to search for a new girlfriend. Lito V was then succeeded by a few more, whom I don’t have any idea who they were. Lito G and then Rey P whom I had the privilege of serving his administration for two years. Rey appointed me as his advisor and I don’t have any clue what my roles were but I remember that we modified the point system following the algorithms from the PGA Fedex point system for making SGCI one of the best clubs in Southern California.
At first, Lito and I did not engage much socially until several months later except in some cases where we occasionally say hi to each other but more often than not, he just down right ignores me. It’s either he did not hear me or he intentionally tries to avoid me. This led me to believe that I thought he was a snob and my first impression was that he is the type of person who is hard to deal with and I thought he was a real pain in the ass. I meant to focus on the fact that we all tend to be judgmental and sometimes we can have a point of view that is a bit too critical and/or negative about that person.
In our perception of people, we often judge people based on their physical appearance rather than judging them from the content of their character but there were times I was right on the money, like when I first met Paul Muego, I thought he was arrogant and later on, I found out that he is really arrogant based on the fact that he talks too loud. You can hear his voice even when you are two holes away when we play golf.but in all fairness to Paul, deep down inside, Paul is one of the nicest guy you will ever meet and one of the friendliest. In Lito’s case, my first impression was the exact opposite of my perception when I first met him because the moment I got to know Lito better, I’m sure you will all agree with me that he is kind, compassionate, exuberant and one of the most generous people you will ever meet. I say this unequivocally and without any reservation. He is the type of friend whom you can trust and rely upon when you need him the most. To demonstrate his generosity and act of kindness, here are some examples:
Every year SGCI hosts fund raising golf events. These events are usually geared to raise funds towards helping our less fortunate or under privilege people back in the Philippines. Lito has always committed to pledge his supports to these type of fundraising events without hesitation. I have always been impressed with his passion to help others. You know there are people who offer to help and there are those who quietly willing to do just that. In my whole life, I knew only of a few people who are doers and willing to help with no question ask. There is no single doubt in my mind that Lito is definitely one of them.
Several years ago, we went to play golf at champions retreat golf course in corona. As some of you know, the first hole is a par 5 dog legged with a hazard across the fairway located 250 yards from the tee box. If you are a long hitter, you may be able to carry the hazards, however, your shot must be precise since there are environmental restrictions on each side ofg the fairway. So most players do a lay up shot just before the hazard. When I stepped on the tee box, Lito handed me a club and he said to try it. It was a 4-iron made by Honma with a 3 star labeled on the shaft. I hit the ball and landed just before the hazard. It was a perfect shot and Lito said that club is all yours. I was speechless and dumbfounded. Although I express my sincere appreciation, I was not too excited about Honma clubs because they are very expensive and only reach people can afford to buy it.
His generosity extends beyond the usual as he gives more tips of no less than 30% to restaurant servers and 300-400% tip to cart girls driving around the golf course selling snacks and beverages and 500% tip to the same cart girls in exchange for a selfie.
For Lito, these are random acts of kindness which he believes you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. If you go to church on a regular basis, I’m sure you heard this quote from the book of Corinthians 9:11.
Lito and I have so much in common. After gold, we enjoy eating on a nice restaurant good food and he knows where to find the best restaurant whether its Chinese, steak, seafood or Vietnamese, but the most I enjoy the most is he knows where to find the best relaxing massage especially in his home turf in Orange County.
I wish I can say much about the way he plays golf. Like most of us, we are struggling and striving to to achieve better scores every game. Lito is an average golfer ever since I met him. He has not changed that much including his unconventional or unorthodox way of swinging the golf club from the day I met him up to now. For most of us, the mechanics of a golf swing is accomplished in 3 simple steps, the take away, back swing and down swing. Lito’s modified golf swing is accomplished in 5 steps and it works for him every time. But I believe there are no right way to swing club as long as you can hit that ball consistently just like everyone else.
At the driving range, I have tried to imitate his golf swing hoping to improve mine but I was unsuccessful. It’s either I miss the ball completely or if I get lucky and made contact to the ball it goes up to 10 yards at the most.
Golf is a very complicated game to play. It requires lots of patience and lots of practice. Some of you may find this game very boring especially watching the PGA tournaments on television, you can see players making shot after shot on the fairway for at least 5 hours and I agree with you 100% just before I started playing this crazy sport that it is one of the most boring sports ever played. But for most us, every shot we make means a lot because that golf shot requires efforts and energy both physically and mentally. And if you hit the ball exactly where you are aiming, it is the best feeling in the world.
Golf is not only about hitting the ball chase it on the fairway, hit it again and again, until you get on the green and hole it out. It is also about learning the core values that goes with it and these are responsibility, integrity and honesty, In other sports like baseball, basketball, football or hockey, players yell or cuss each other when there are rule infractions committed and sometimes they literally throw opponent out of the rink in hockey when a major violation occurred. In golf we shake hands with our opponents win or lose and this is one of the reasons why it is called a gentleman’s game.
Recently Lito and I played a match play against Al and Ferds. In a match play, player may concede a putt but the problem with this rule is that USGA does not specify the distance of putt when to concede. Some players may concede 2 ft or less. In our case, Al is about to putt that will decide the outcome of the game. We did not concede but If he makes the putt, the game is tied but if he misses, Lito and I would win the game. Al made the putt, which is about 6” from the hole. At the end of the game, Lito and I were criticized and vilified for not conceding. The following week we played a rematch so in order to make up from our misconduct behavior but most importantly in order to preserve the true spirit of the game of golf as embodied in its ancient and honorable traditions, Lito and I decided to concede all putts which were less than 5 feet. Unfortunately we lost the game by one point.
Lito G, I know we had some bad times but definitely we had lot of good times.
Tradition dictates that I’m supposed to give you a birthday wish by means of a wordy advice on occasion like this but what else I could wish for? You already have everything in life, a very successful vice president of a bank, a rich guy, fortunate to have a warm and caring family where you occasionally talked about the accomplishments of your kids and the accolades they received in school, you just move-in to an exclusive neighborhood in Orange County and you drive a very nice brand new sports car.
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