GOLFING IN SURABAYA

SURABAYA WAS HOT AND RAINY last week when I spent the week 12-16 December 2011 in the city of 3.5 million population. Stayed at a hotel just 5 minutes from from Tunjungan Plaza called Santika Hotel at Jalan Pandegiling for IDR 543,000 a night with great breakfast and free wi-fi in the room.

After work managed to slot in 2 golf outings at Ciputra golf club on Wednesday for IDR 510,000 per pax for senior golfer and IDR 790,000 for non-senior inclusive of golf cart and a caddy each. If you have Temporary residence Status its only IDR 395,000 per pax on Wednesday.

The rate at Bukit Darmo golf club was slightly more at IDR 535,000 each and there is no senior rates there. Between the 2 courses Ciputra was a lot better in every aspect including pretty caddies.

It was great playing on weekdays as there were not many people playing as opposed to Saturday and Sunday.

There are other golf courses in Surabaya including the oldest one Yani golf but its a walking course with `bra-less' caddies. The other courses are situated outside the city in Tretes and Taman Dayu about 90 minites from the city.

NOVEMBER GOLF

This month of November can be considered the worst rainy season for golfers as it rained days and nights and morning until afternoon and sometimes we started golf only at 9.30 am after the rain stopped. Nevertheless I have been playing better golf this month and always in the top five amongs competitors despite using different sets every other week. I was placed 4th at Bangi Golf Resort during the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities MICCOS Golf Tournament beating 44 other competitors. 

Our weekly get-together at the Kundang Lakes West Course assembled anything between 4 to 7 flights on Saturday. With pool money of RM 30 each you can expect to play FOC if get to the Champion status. During the last three (3) weeks I managed to win 2 times and got RM 90 for being Champion and that took care of the RM 55 Green fee, RM 30 pool and RM 4 for the LATAR toll. 

Last week I won again and this time with side bet and a birdie bonus so it was Teh Tarik on me that day. Our group are such a fun loving kakis that nobody ever played that good and even to play par golf was a great achievement, let alone play under par. Most of us are in the 5 series and 6 series so the score of 95-100 are common, the lower scores were posted by the 3 series golfers.

This week I may not be able to defend my title as weddings invitations have to be honoured and involved outstation kenduries. Have fun my fellow golfers and I will be back soon...

GOLF IN BANDA ACEH

Well, who would have thought Banda Aceh has a golf course to play! This one called the Sulawah Golf Club (SGC) has hosted a few tournaments in Aceh since the Walikota is a keen golfer. SGC has hosted not fewer than 3 local tournaments with golfers from Malaysia participating.

The golf course rather sad to say is not fit for tournament play with pathetic fairways and greens but if it is the only golf course people have no choice. There is one other course located at Sabang an island off the coast of Banda Aceh, they told me this one is pretty neat!

SGC used to be a beautiful 18 hole course before Tsunami 2004 brought along sea sand to the course and now only 9 holes are available. The old Pine trees that are still standing are the remaining trees of the old course and they have planted new trees though albeit still very young and not too distracting..

I asked a tourist agent to arrange a tee time with my buddy Hj Wahab from Shah Alam for us to paly 18 holes ( 2 putar they said!). We agreed to pay IDR 600,000 each including golf set, glove, balls, shoe and caddy. I just lost 1 ball while my buddy lost 2 balls in the woods and we scored below 100 with each of us scoring 2 pars each. The 2 caddies asked for another IDR 150,000 after the game saying that we played 2 rounds (18)instead of 1 round after everything was decided and agreed the day before..Muslim Aceh or Tsunami Aceh, Indonesian are still the same..they never change their character..always money on their mind.

The tour guide sent us to the course with a Suzuki APV at 8-00 am in the morning and we finished at about 12.00 pm. we took a ride to nearby Pantai Lhoknga, a popular seaside retreat for the Banda Aceh population which is just 17 km from the town. We also stopped by Masjid Barakatullah for a photo shoot and then returned to Hermes Palace Hotel, a really nice hotel.

Suzuki APV IDR 500,000 per day (8 hours) or IDR 100,000 per hour
Green fee 9 holes IDR 200,000 18 holes IDR 350,000
Golf set rental, shoe, glove, ball, tees etc. IDR 200,000 (Old Taylor Made)
Caddies IDR 75,000
No scorecards no receipts

MISSING THE CUT

We are still monitoring the progress of brother AA and Sharif in the rehabilitation process due to muscle fatigue and diabetes. In the meantime we pray for their recovery and hope they can rejoin our golfing community soon. I heard AA has been to the driving range but Sharif has been absent for quite a while, we all missed them.

WHISTLER GOLF CLUB, BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA

Looking at the 1st tee-box of the Whistler Golf Club and you’ll understand why Arnold Palmer chose it as the location for his first Canadian design. Snow-capped peaks surround the course in all directions, ancient cedars and majestic fir trees line the fairways, winding streams, nine lakes and white sand bunkers punctuate perfectly manicured greens and an occasional black bear sauntering across a fairway is not an uncommon site. 

 

The Whistler Golf Club is a par 71, 18-hole, golf course that easily exceeds the expectations of the most discriminating golfer. In 2000 the Whistler Golf Club received an extensive $2.2 million renovation to ensure this 6722-yard course continues its legacy of excellence. 

The golf course is just a short par 4 from the hotel I stayed in Whistler, a resort city about 115 km from Vancouver, Canada. I was there for a business function and the organizer arranged a golf tournaments for all the delegates with a participants fee of CAD 170 (RM515) and equipment rental of CAD56(RM170) including lunch. Normal green fees would depend on the tee-time, morning will be CAD129, after 3.00 pm about CAD89 and after 5.00 pm about CAD15 for 5 holes.

So I went to the pro-shop to buy some T-shirts and took some photos of the club and the course, 

TASIK PUTERI AIDILFITRI CLASSICS

Last Friday 2 September 2011, Mr. Ghazali called members of our golf fratenity to play at Tasik Puteri Golf Club for a post Hari Raya outing and 13 of us accepted the challenge. The flight was broken up into 4432 and saved the cost of 1 buggy. Each golfer with discount cards paid approximately RM57 each.

Strangely everybody played quite well with only 4 broke the 100 barrier and even 1 broke the 90 barrier with 87 ( wonder if he played during Ramadhan!). Our chief organizing officer (COO) Ghazali came up with 3 prizes being hotel vouchers worth RM 338 for Champion and first runner-up and a t-shirt for 2nd runner-up. I missed the prizes for being fourth other wise a tube of balls could compensate for the lost balls on par 3s, in the water.

We went for Friday prayers at nearby mosque and returned to the clubhouse for lunch and prize presentations. The results (Gross) are as follows;

1.Hassan 87
2. Aziz 94
3. Harun 95
4. Bangdolah 98
5. Zahari (Jai) 101
6. Sharol (102)
7. RajaTajul 103
8. Hassan 103
9. Aziz 104
10. Hj Zainal (Atek) 104
11. Ghazali (COO) 107
12. Khemdan 117
13. Shah 119


HAPPY GOLFING!

RETIRED GOLFERS

It has been quite a while since our brothers AA and Sharif played golf with us, one is restricted by nerves problems and the oither one diabetic. While they are recuperating we wish them well and hope they can join us soon. I haven't swing a golf club for two weeks now although I watched Golf Channel at Astro..damm you for increasing the charges. Looking forward to golfing again this September...after the Open House season!

GOLF IN VIENTIANE, LAOS

Can play golf in Vientiane but start early as 5.30 p.m. getting dark overthere!
Make sure you have lots of golf balls, they are expensive here!

WET GOLF AT AWANA GENTING

Taking shelter at the halfway hut during a downpour! Golf at awana genting could take as long as 6 hours to finish a round of 18 holes especially if you got beautiful korean lady golfers playing ahead of you...

Looking at the 1st tee box..sharp dogleg right Par 4


2nd hole ,easier than 1st hole

GOLF in Shanghai, China

Me and Choong somewhere in Shanghai downtown

The golf course is fantastic. The greens are always fast and true, the fairways are like greens on most courses. The new clubhouse that was just opened in Oct 2008 is designed more like a hotel . Since it is now owned by the local government bureau, they needed a hotel for their parties but i didn't stay long enough to get invited. They just raised the green fees too, an un-accompanied guest fee is now $200. The good thing is that you have an electronic key to the locker so no need to remember numbers.

Me and VIPs from Malaysia. They put me in this flight because my tee-off is 85% on the fairway so there would be no wastee of time looking for stray balls. If you give 18 strokes for 18 holes for VIP there is less holes to play for, nevertheless my partner and I won 2 holes.