One of the country’s finest golf players, Luis “Golem” Silverio, passed away yesterday, 6:50 a.m. at the Riverside Medical Hospital in Bacolod City due to emphysema or chronic lung disease.

He was 70.

Considered as a legend in Philippine golf, winning the Philippine Open in 1966 and playing twice at the at Masters in Augusta and in the US Open, Silverio was brought to the hospital last week after he collapsed in his house, his sister Terry Silverio Lacson said.

She remembers her younger brother as a very good golf player who won so many trophies in the game.

“Golem loved golf so much and he did a lot of things for it,” Lacson said.

In 1962, Silverio helped design the par-70 tree-lined layout of the Marapara Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club, venue of the recent 61st PAL Interclub tournament.

One of his friends, Fernando Arguelles, remembers Silverio as a “gifted” man who can excel in almost anything he chooses to do. He is also a very private person who did not want visitors in his hospital room, Arguelles said.

In his early interviews with the Asian Professional Golfers Association, Silverio lamented the deterioration of the game and hinted that politics was behind it.

He was quoted as saying that there were very few tournaments where the golfers can improve their game but too much politics.

Aside from winning the Philippine Open, he also had seven Putra Cup trophies that he won with his Filipino teammates.

His remains were brought to the Alisbo funeral parlor yesterday. The date of interment has not yet been decided by the family.*NAB

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