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.