The legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said: \u201cDefending a title is harder than winning it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This must hold true for Team Boss, the defending champions of The Straits Times & Business Times Corporate Golf League.<\/p>\n
Leaving no stone unturned, they are already preparing for next year\u2019s competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Boss Golf Day, held in August at Singapore Island Country Club, team captain Andre Huber said: \u201cYes, it is often harder as complacency sets in and the pressure is greater when defending the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our recent annual Boss Golf Day, which brought together our players and keen supporters, the spirits were high and we pledged that we would do everything possible to defend the prestigious crown.<\/p>\n
\u201cST & BT do a fantastic event at each leg of the league, so we encourage our players to soak it all in and simply enjoy themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judging by the good scores at the Boss Golf event, spiced up with a short game clinic by Italian pro Davide Bertoli of DB Golf Centre, Huber might well have a selection headache for next year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
For instance, one of their star lady players, Angelina Xiong, an eight-handicapper, hit a massive drive of 227 metres to win the Longest Drive competition.<\/p>\n
Said Huber: \u201cWhile we miss the national players who supported us previously, Angelina has stepped up to the task with a recent glowing performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe now has a big responsibility on her shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Angelina, who plays three times a week: \u201cOther than me, there are a few players, such as Marilyn Lum and Li Anne Fones, who can raise their game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Huber: \u201cRaymond Lee (handicap 3) and Chua Hun Yew (7) are our star players among the men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team Boss, who also won in 2023, plan to have another morale-boosting get-together in October before intensifying their practice rounds early next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll do the usual practice rounds at the respective courses prior to the actual game, and also include some skills sessions at the golf simulator at Greenbox by My Golf Kaki.\u201d<\/p>\n
Closest rivals Orchid Country Club (OCC), runner-up last year, are aware of Team Boss\u2019 strong preparations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have always been serious, but we will give them a good fight,\u201d said OCC general manager Melvyn Tan.<\/p>\n
OCC will select their inter-club league players in two weeks\u2019 time, and the cream of their team will come from this squad.<\/p>\n
Added Tan: \u201cOur golfers are playing throughout the year, so it will be a big task selecting the best players based on merit alone. Temperament and teamwork are key.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two teams likely to enter the fray next year are former winners Citibank and Orion Orthopaedics.<\/p>\n
Third-placed Singapore Global Trust will field an unchanged team with single-handicapper Winson Oh \u2013 who bagged the individual best player award in the final leg early this year \u2013 leading the outfit.<\/p>\n
The writer is a former sports editor of The Straits Times and has been writing about golf and sports for more than 55 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said: \u201cDefending a title is harder than winning it.\u201d This must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-605686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}