EAGLE at Monterez

First golf outing after Ramadan turned out to be extraordinary for Hj Atek, Bob, Jai and Bangdolah because nobody scored 100++! Bob played decent until the last three holes when he admitted to extremely dehydrated under the hot sun and blew up his score! He was doing allright with 6 straight pars at the second nine! He scored 83 gross and me 92.

Miracle happened at the short par 4 14th hole when Jai holed out his second shot from about 100 meter using an AW! It was a great EAGLE from him! Both Bob and I missed our birdie put for a tap in par...it took the thrill out when Atek found Jai's ball in the hole and before that he said he heard the ball hit the flagstick.

It was nice playing at Monterez during weekdays as only a few flights were on the course and we pretty much played leisurely...nobody in front and nobody at the back. I would say Atek played a very consistent golf from tee to green while Jai was struggling with his tee shot and chipping around the green. Bob played better than he anticipated while Bangdolah played his standard game.

Next outing will be Saturday at Kundang Lakes Golf Club. I am glad we played today....the rusty engine is starting to roar again!

Happy Golfing....

Nilai Spring Finale!

A pre-Ramadhan outing was organized by Jai in Nilai Spring Golf and Country Club and Staffield Golf Club on 18 August 2009. We had the morning session in Nilai Spring and afternoon session at Staffield but the afternoon game ended prematurely due to rain and thunderstorms...

At Nilai Spring the ceremonial tee-off was given to Sharol of Menara KL and he sliced the shot into the right hazards...yeah the one month rest will do him good! Hj Katek scooped the ball high but landed on the fairway..so much for the standard of play of my golf buddies.

Hj Munir ended the golf season on a high note..scoring gross 74 on the Pine and Mango courses and he is on handicap 12 at the moment! The next best golfer was Azharuddin or AA who returned with a gross 84! I lost twenty bucks for the pool and five buck for his solo birdie...

O yes...Yasni looked like he enjoyed the game because the pretty Indon caddy served him well..no wonder he could not take advantage of the 4 strokes we all gave him... he was the overall loser in my group..never mind we all can eat more during lunch! Ayi played very well...this ex-single handicapper wanted to play at 16 handicap..level with me, never mind..his other handicap was stamina..he was running at three-cylinder in Staffield!

Me..Munir and Pak Yob had dinner at a Tom Yam restaurant in Semenyih while the others turned right to take the LEKAS highway back to KL! Until next outing..lets keep the body fit with lots of Tarawih!

Golf in Vientiane

Hmm..the smell of Agarwood brought me to Vientiane, the Capital city Lao PDR. It is a landlocked nation bordered by Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam without any sea ports to export and import. The missing sea view was nevertheless replaced by the Mekong River and with all the exciting nightly waterfront activities we can forget the sea! I spent everynight having grilled Black Talapia for dinner with sticky rice and fresh vegetables. There were also river prawns and snake head fish for company!

For Muslim there were Nizam, Fatima and Ali restaurants that served the special fried rice..teh tarik and the Berianis...mutton, chicken and fish. The Jamek Mosque was still under renovation.

Old friend Mr Bounsouane and newly found friend Ms Papao made my life a little easier as they provided the basic translation in my everyday communication. Met Mr Benny Tan, GM of DRose Hotel (Malaysian owned) located next to Lao Plaza Hotel. Let him know you are my friend..he will let you stay at the hotel for USD 40 per room. The room is huge..350 sq feet!

Benny got all his friend's golf sets and loaned them to us and we played at the Vientiane KM 6 Golf Club. Arrived at the golf club about 2.30 pm and paid the green fees at the Sport Shop about Lao kip 280,000 per person including cute girl caddies! This was a 9 hole set-up so we played from White tees and then yellow tees. We finished the game in darkness..No..No.. there were floodlights at no extra charges!

Great game..shot 86 ( 5 pars and 2 birdies..not bad with a borrowed set) and enjoy the photos.
I am having difficulty loading photos here..see them at bangdolah.fotopages.com!

Impian Golf - now everybody can win prizes!

Our golf stablemates registered for the Annual MPOPC Golf Championship 2009 held at the tricky Impian Golf and Country Club Kajang Selangor on Saturday 4 July 2009. Playing at the tricky Hole No.8 both flights came out smiling..no triple bogeys! we were playing using the System 36 Stableford Points system, where you can only play par golf (36 points) if you shoot 96 gross (HCP 24maximum for men) and below and no triple bogeys!

Nevertheless everybody got prizes to bring home. The best performance in our group went to Pak Yob who came out Champion in the C Medal. He played 36 points off handicap 20 for that day. Rahim won 3rd place in the A Medal and Munir was 8th in the A Medal (handicap 12 and below). Jai was placed in the B medal, so was Kamal and Hadi. Bangdolah won the NTL contest with placement of 30 cm from the line.

Our Champion Pak Yob owed his success to the recent training stint in Jakarta and the use of his new rescue club.

Thank you MPOPC for being such a sporting organizer!

Weekend Golf at Kundang

KLCC is Kundang Lakes Country Club and not the other KLCC where the Petronas Twin Towers are located. KLCC has now been a regular fixture in my golf calendar as I got the opportunity to play morning golf during the weekends. For golf discount card holder the rate is RM 44 per person sharing buggy and RM 45 for turf-mate. The rates are good for weekdays as well as for weekends.

The first nine or Kundang Nine is always the easier layout where the first two holes provide opportunities for eagles, birdies and pars. Being short in length the first hole measured only 281 metres from the blue tee and the second hole is a 121 meter par three. I always make sure to score par at both holes because the next hole is a par 4 that promise you a bogey! The third hole is a dogleg left par four guarded by many bunkers, at the fairways and greenside! The green is tricky and lucky to make 2 putts!

The fourth hole is a 443 meter par 5, an easy three shot placement and should get a par here! Keep your second shot to the left of fairway to avoid the guarding bunkers! The fifth hole is a short 303 meter par 4 with tricky green but nonetheless should make par! The next hole is a 347 meter par 4 with a tricky approach to the fast green, guarded by bunkers on the right and OB on the left..the safe way is to play it short of the green and chip to the pin for a par putt! The seventh hole is a 486 meter par 5, must avoid the fairway bunkers about 190-200 meters from the blue tee box! A second shot must also avoid the bunkers on the left of the fairways and approach shot to the middle of the large green is a prudent play.

The last par 3 is a 132 meter hole guarded by many greenside bunkers..an uphill put is desired to make par or bogey. The last hole is an index 1 370 meter par 4, although it is an index 1, it turned easy if your tee shot find the fairway. My second shot is always about 180 meter to the green, usually my 5 wood or 3 iron would land the ball at the apron and a simple chip would award me with a putt for par.

The first 9 should give a 18 handicap golfer a score of 43-45 strokes!

The back 9 or Lakes Nine bring water into play for most of the holes except hole no. 10 and 18. The tee shot at hole nos 10 is always intimidating as a pull tee shot or a duck hook will probably go OB and could hit vehicles on the rural road..so please aim to the right, there are only bunkers there! Once on the fairway, plan your second shot to land at your most comfortable distance...for me it is 60 to 80 meter as I have three wedges, 56, 60 and 64 degrees to rely on! Should make a par on this hole! The next hole is a 135 meter par 3 and has to carry over water! The pond had collected a lot of golf balls! You can use anything from AW,PW to 8 iron and aim right for security and keep out the big numbers! The 12 hole is a 327 meter dogleg left par 4 that requires precision placement of tee shot. There are water hazard on the right to catch the slicer and marsh swamp on the left to catch the hookers! The raised green is tricky, take a bogey and leave for next hole! The 13 hole is a 496 meter par 5 and require 3 good shots to reach the green. I would settle for a bogey on this hole! Next is 373 meter par 4 that require precise approach to the green, anything right will find the water! Hole 15 is probably the signature hole par 3 that plays 170 meter from the blue tee! Pin placement at the back and right would be the most difficult, I would play my 4 iron to the front of the green and try my luck from there! Sometimes they have a red flag at the front and I could try a birdie chip or putt!

The next hole is a 320 meter right dogleg par 4. The difficulty lies in finding the fairway, you could slice and end up in the drinks or your tee shot overruns the fairway and ended up under the trees without sight to the green! In you find the fairway, its only a PW or 9 iron to the green. The 17 hole is a short 295 meter par 4 where you should make four!

The last hole is a index 2 par 4 plays 394 meter and I played it as all 18 handicapper should, a 3 shot strategy and 2 putt for bogey! That complete the round, if there are no bad shot and 3 putts, you should this nine in 44-47 strokes!

My best score for Kundang Nine was 38 strokes and for Lakes Nine was 40 strokes but it didn’t happened on the same round and same day, maybe someday it will....until that day comes, my scores at KLCC would be between 87 to 92 always!

Kundang Lakes Country Club

Kundang Lakes Country Club...has improved a lot from the last two years, it now served new buggies on its menu...a popular attraction for golfers now! To get to Kundang Lakes is easy..you follow the old Rawang road if you are from KL and turn left towards Batu Arang, PLUS highway, Bandar Country Homes, Tasik Puteri alike..and get ready to turn left after Bandar Country Homes traffic light..it is about 600 meters (thats a long par 5..)! From the junction it takes 10 minutes to reach the club.

If you are using the Sungai Buloh road, proceed to Kelab Rahman Putra until you reach the T-junction and turn left into the village, its probably 10 km from the KRP! Registration was fast and easy and the 8 of us was set to tee off in 5 minutes, we paid RM 44 each under AGS card!

The premier league group cocnsisted of Wan Munir (12), Wak (based in Nigeria) and AA all played 16 hcp and Ijam was promoted to 20 hcp ! The other Liga Perdana group consisted of Dolah (18), Jai, Yasni and Shahrul all 20+ hcp !

The weather was fine and the course was there for the taking..premier league group returned with gross 81,83,87 and 93! The liga perdana group managed 90,95,96 and 97! Maybe who scored 90 can get promotion to premier league next time around and get ready to be slaughtered ! Even though Ijam scored 93..he got 2 birdies !

Meal time..today's special were Mee Curry and Nasi Ayam Special at RM 5.50 per serving! 2 jugs of Sirap Bandung completed the lunch menu...now its time to go home and refresh and prepare for KGSAAS on Monday!

MyGolf Inter-team Challenge 12 April 2009

Sunday 12 April 2009 was supposed to be the event of the year for members of MyGolf.Com community ! They were suppose to fight it out on the Tasik Puteri Golf Course to determine this year Champion Team, be it DON or NAGARIA ! Nagaria team members came out in full force in blazing RED colours to frighten the defending champion Team DON and they succeeded as 8 players from Team DON failed to turn up ! Alas...due to poor coordination of Tasik Puteri Management, the tee-off time was delayed from 12.30 pm to about 2.00 pm by which time the sky was already preparing a downpour ! Much to the golfers disappointment the game was stopped 3 times due to rain and thunderstorm and some made it to finish 18 holes but many did not !
No winner was declared and prizes were given away in lucky draws! Nevertheless during dinner everybody seemed to have enjoyed the outings especially in meeting new fellow golfers, men and ladies alike ! With registered members exceeding 1,700 golfers this golf community would be a great platform for networking, for business and leisure!
Michelle Y H Lee provided more photos at this link,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelleyhlee/sets/72157616712668092/

Practice Round

He got the body size and hit maybe harder than Tiger Woods and want to turn professional golfer in the future but age is catching up so he will settle down as little Kuching Woods of Taman Samudera Batu Caves. Phew... not that we don’t have talent but we could only played once a week due to the quota system imposed by the Home Minister! So we all make the most of it, sometimes played 36 holes in one day..just like the final of World Accenture Matchplay.

Wan Munir is the best of the lot with AA and Dolah a distance second and third. The rest are still trying to play at 95 consistently...and some would smile when they broke 100...golf is such a fun game!

I am still on leave and during the last 10 days, have played at Bukit Kemuning with Tan and Chan, from Klang, Kelab Rahman Putera witn Brand and Ghafar from Terengganu, Seremban 3 Paradise Valley with the usual gang, Kundang Lakes with Yob, Nordin and Abang Wan, Tasik Puteri with Selayang neighbours and Thurday another round with Rizal , Nizam and Nazeri at Tasik Puteri again...no..no..not because they have caddies from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam but for practice round for the inter team competition on Sunday ! Razak just called if I want to join his group this Friday at Orna and Tiara Melaka...I thought we Malaysians are facing global economic recessions ? That's why they play golf...not much work in the office ! Jai also SMS for Tunku Jaafar on Saturday and Brand and Sudin asked to join 9 holes at Monterez, sorry guys..I need rest laa!

Golf in Seremban 3

Saturday 4 April 2009 our organizer Jai managed to assemble six golfers to play at the Seremban 3 Golf Course. This trip was the 3rd visit to this course this year for our group and this time around Halim joined us, my..did he struggled today and lost 4 balls ! As usual when we traveled south of KL we made it a point to stop for breakfast at the Nilai R&R for Nasi Lemak Sotong! Usually we will be there around 7.15 to 7.30 morning.

The weather was just fine when we started at about 8.45 but by the time we went to 2nd nine it was very hot..that was the problem when we played in a valley course, almost no wind to push away the heat! After the game Munir laid down in the changing room..tired he said, I was exhaussted during our last trip, so was AA..maybe we should other course next week.

By the way, Sharol from Menara KL was not around this time, he was busy with the F1 event! But he let me try his Nike SQ driver...sorry Rol, arini driver tak perform!

GOLF IN PORT DICKSON

On Saturday 28 March 2009, we assembled a group of regular golfers to play in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan. This was the second time we organized such golf adventures in 2009 but the players were not the same. I left home in Selayang at about 6.45 am in the morning and reached Port Dickson Golf and Country Club at about 8.30 am and traveled about 110 km. I have earlier stopped for Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai at the mamak shop near the round-about just before the entrance to the PDGCC. Later I met the rest of the gang, Shahrul, Norzainal, Salleh, Wan Munir, Khairuddin, Zahari, Zaharuddin and me Bangdolah. After registration, we paid RM 70 each, we went to the 10th Tee Box for a group photograph.


This was my second time I played at PTGCC and enjoyed playing the course. However due to the hard and firm fairways and greens, scoring was much more difficult for a 18 handicapper like me. Wan Munir got 3 birdies and obviously the best amongst us and I shot 90 that included 5 par, 10 bogeys, 1 double bogey and 2 triples ! It could have been better !


Port Dickson Golf & Country Club
5 1/2 Miles, Jalan Pantai, 71050 Si Rusa, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.
Tel: 606-6473123, 6473586, 6461421, 6461423, 6477004 Fax: 606-6474949, 6475668



After lunch and prayers, we went to Royal Palm Spring Golf and Country Club about 8 km from PDGCC. When we arrived there were plenty of other people at the club house and Wan Munir proceeded to register for all of us and we paid RM 52 each. However, some member were already too tired and did not play well but some guy like Zahari (Jai..) and NorZainal (Atek..) have plenty of energy and power left and they played well. We finished at about 7-00 pm and after shower went for Mghrib prayer at the Club surau..(very large..) and took off for dinner at a shop near the Guoman Hotel and resort. We left PD at about 9 pm and I reached Selayang at 10.30 pm, toll damage was RM 7.70 to Seremban and PD highway RM3.20 one way..

Palm Springs Resort Port Dickson
Batu 13, Km 21 Jalan Pantai,
Mukim Pasir Panjang,
71250 Port Dickson Negeri Sembilan.

Tel: 06-661 0260 (DL) or 06-661 0260 (GL)
Fax at 06-661 0566

Hero Indian Open, New Delhi

Well, I didn't play golf at the New Delhi Golf Club but I was there at the time they held the Hero Honda Indian Open in October 2008. On the opening round on Thurday I went to see the competition as there was several Malaysian golfers taking part. The entrance was free and I got the flight list from the beautiful ladies at the entrance. So I went to the hole where Malaysian golfers Airil Rizman and Iain Steel were playing. Chatted with Airil after he made his par put and went on to follow them a few more holes. Then I saw Chapcai Nirat and Jyoti Randawa and followed them for a few more holes. There were not many spectators, Indians are die hard cricket fans, you can watch crickets all day on their TV channels.

The course was narrow with forest areas in between holes and some animals like black deer was seen grazing at the end of the fairways.

GOLF IN MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

Punta De Golf del Cerro was created with excellent design, beautiful views of the bay, the sea and Cerro fortress. In the decade of the 30's the famous designer Dr Alliester McKenzie was given the responsibility of re-designing the club and finally in the 1950's, when the Swift company, the former owner of the property closed, the club was renamed with its present name.

When I was there in December 2008, the weather was hot but windy as the club was located near the sea. We drove from the hotel, Four Points by Sheraton to the course using a rented brand new Honda Civic and took us about 30 minutes to reach the golf club. After a small breakfast of tuna sandwich and hot coffee, we paid USD 30 for the Green Fee and USD 10 for the men caddies. One of the caddies was a scratch handicap golfer, he spoke good English,,and we made friend with him...my friend said now we have a good caddie for night golfing in Montevideo !

We also played at the other golf course in the Montevideo city, the Club De Golf del Uruguay and the Green Fees was a little higher at USD 50 per 18 holes. Here again we enjoyed the scenic views of the ocean and city of Montevideo. There are other golf courses in Punta del Este about 130 km away from the city. There are 2 courses there, Cantegrill Country Club and Club del lago Golf located near the Atlantic Ocean with broad, soft and white beaches.

Golf in Kuching, Sarawak

Kuching town, Sarawak - I didn't see any cats (Kuching..) during my 5 days in town. Took MAS flight to Kuching and stayed at Holiday Inn by the river, nice n comfort room with good breakfast. We were off to Damai Golf and Country Club the same afternoon, perhaps 50 minutes from the hotel. Four of us Kamal, Roslan. Sanuri and me played 18 holes. The view were breathtaking...the last few holes,14-18 have the ocean on our left and tropical trees on our right, the charms of Santubong! We played Damai Golf 2 times and Kelab Golf Sarawak (KGS) 2 times. At KGS, Mazlan (local Kuching guy..!) joined us and he hit huge drives...he was my schoolmate from STAR, Ipoh. Thank you Lan...you were great as our host! The courses at KGS were very well designed, the index holes (golfers will understand) were superbly designed and these holes played to their degree of difficulties! Congratulation KGS for well-kept courses. We sure would like to come back and challenge the course again...

Beside golf, food was also good in Kuching and cheaper than KL by 20% perhaps! After the Damai game we stopped at Buntal for seafood delight..no complain. We also took a boat ride across the river to eat there during the evening. We took the RM 120 seafood package that included sweet n sour crab, butter prawn, Pakis Sarawak, sotong halia and ikan steam ...go for it!

The Waterfront is a good place to meet friend and have Teh Tarik or Teh Dangdut (must try!) nice place but beware of `Kaki Pukau' and `Conman' , they were out there! Once they touch you..you would be under spell already (most of the time) and probably unable to say NO to whatever they ask you...good luck, my friend lost his HP there!

You also chould go to `Little India', a place like KL Petaling Street to buy sourvenirs like Pasu or Tembikar and the famous Tikar Sarawak. Before you leave Kuching make sure You buy some `Terubok Masin' , go for the largest fish you can get and fresh ones too..the big ones start at RM 10 per fish. Also a must is Kueh Kek Lapis, just take a trip across the river...those two things will sure make the wives happy...and let us play golf again !

As you can see from the photos the riverside really is beautiful...nearby hotels are RiverView, Hilton, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Riverside (Hotel & Apartment).

Until next posting...

Golf in Surabaya, Indonesia

I was in Surabaya Indonesia for a few days on a working trip. Traveled by MH 871, took about 2 hrs 40 minutes to reach Djuanda Airport. Some friends went by Air Asia flight AK 912 and they arrived 2 hours later. Nevertheless, we all checked in at the Novotel Hotel Surabaya Hotel & Suites at Jl. Ngagel, Surabaya.

Business matters took all of the first 2 days in Surabaya with visit to Malang and Gresik and lots of business meetings. The 3rd day was unwinding at the golf course and there were 3 courses there, Ciputra Golf Club, Bukit Darmo Golf Club and Finna Golf Club and we played at Bukit Darmo Golf club !

We booked transport from the transport counter at the hotel and got Toyota Innova to send us to the Golf Course and cost us Rp 190,000 per trip. There were 10 of us and there was a pool prize money of Rp 900,000 to be won. This blogger won 1st place and Rp 400,000 ! The score wasn't that good, only 4 people managed below 100 from the championship tee..

Caddies were good..the course was good...we played another 18 holes in the afternoon !
By the way the Green Fees on weekday was Rp 500,000 net inclusive of golf cart and caddie.

Golf in Yangon, Myanmar

I was in Yangon, Myanmar. It was very fortunate to have a local friend who could arrange golf in Yangon at a private club called Punh Hlaing Golf and Country Club. It took about 45 minutes drive from Yangon town. The Green Fees was about USD 60 on the weekend, for weekdays the rate was cheaper probably USD 50. It was a walking course, so it turned out a very good exercise for us and we probably walked 6-7 KM to complete the 18 holes that day.

The other golf course that we played was the Yangon Golf Club, a club established in 1899. They have men caddies with a forward marshal to indicate the location of your ball. So we very seldom lost any ball except for OB, water hazards and the forest. The Green Fee for Visitor was USD 15 per round and caddies fee was USD 3 to USD 5 depending on their skill category. This course usually hosted the Asian PGA, Myanmar Open.

My problem in Myanmar was the language. It was like `chicken and duck', we have no idea on what they were talking about. Luckily, we were just playing golf and the caddies were helpful, you know we all were not so good as golfers and we sprayed the ball everywhere...and still they could find the ball.

I stayed at the Traders Hotel in the town centre. A special rate given to us was USD 45 per night. It was a very good hotel and managed by the Shangri-la Hotel group. During our stay the hotel was the venue for my country's Merdeka celebrations, so we joined the party, there was a good crowd of about 500++ people who came to the dinner including local VIPs. So we met people from the Embassies, Petronas, other hotels and Toyotas... all Malaysian. Just next to our hotel is another hotel, on the 5th Floor (or 3rd floor?) they have place for foot massage, cost us RM 18 per 1 hour session.

Food in Yangon was very good, just like home. There were plenty of Muslim food, Beriani Ayam and Teh Tarik only cost RM3.20! Cooked dinner at a Yunan Muslim shop 6 dishes only RM17! We missed the good old days, these were prices 10 years ago in Malaysia. Many hotels have chef and cooks from Malaysia, so you can order TomYam and ikan asam pedas quite easily.

Traders Hotel welcomed guest from Malaysia, they would provide you with a copy of Quran, sejadah and local praying time. What more could you ask for? Nearby there were 2 Sunni mosques for your Friday prayers just 3-5 minutes walking time.

The was the Bogyoke market where they sell jades and stones and stuff like your batu cincin. Some shop owners even speak Malay, so no problem to bargain, they pampered you with teh tarik in small glass because they served tea only in small glass in Myanmar. So many of them have worked in Kuala Lumpur, so they could speak Malay very well.