FINNA GOLF CLUB, SURABAYA

I have been to Surabaya Indonesia many times on work related trip and played a few rounds of golf there namely at Ciputra Golf Club, Graha Family Golf Club and Bukit Darmo Golf. there are two other less popular golf clubs, the 18 holes Par 3 course at Pakuwon Golf and Family Club and Ahmad Yani Golf Club, a walking course. There are 2 other golf courses located further away from the city, about 70 minutes drive from city centre and these 2 courses are Taman Dayu Golf Club and Finna Golf Club located near the mountains and resort village of Tretes.

On my recent trip to Surabaya in May 2014 I was able to take time off from work to travel to Finna Golf Resort with some friends. The journey took us to the direction of Malang and Pasuruan and exiting the highway at Sidoarjo. People said Finna Golf Club would be very cool but we felt the opposite, quite hot...

So off we went to play golf...

So what's so great about playing golf in Indonesia ? Was it the course, cheaper rates or anything else? The best kept secret amongst golfers is all about the caddies...they are beautiful and seductive ( on the golf course..), can't blame them as they will do that and expect a fat tip from you after the games. So what is a few hundred thousand Rupiah for a 4 hour companionship? Hehehe..check out these photos?

NEW KUTA GOLF CLUB, BALI, INDONESIA

Taking the 777-200 aeroplane is much better than AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali and reached there in about 3 hours. The Ngurah Rai International Airport is a pretty busy airport but quite modern and relevant to modern day travellers. There were 16 people in the delegation and 3 missed the plane in Kuala Lumpur so they have to take the next scheduled flight to Bali, cannot blame them as they were all first time overseas travellers.

We stay away from town centre at the place called the Pecatu Indah Resort about 30 minutes drive from the airport and near the KLAPA New Kuta Beach. We stayed at the Lorin New Kuta Hotel apparently quite cheap at IDR 480,000 nett including breakfast. For dinner we went to the beach and have seafood dinner at the famous Jimbaran Bay located on the Jimbaran beach. The food was quite nice but pretty expensive, this was to be expected as Bali is a commercial town with a lot of tourists.

After the morning trip to several Agarwoods and Sengon plantations about 2 hours from the hotel, we played golf in the afternoon at the New Kuta Golf Club. It was quite expensive as the club charged foreigners USD 170 per golfer inclusive of twin sharing buggy and lady caddies. The golf club is located by the sea and wind factor certainly added to the difficulty of playing this championship course. From the blue tee it played 6,000 metres. It once hosted a LPGA event back in 2009.

It was a very good golf outing for all of us but didn't managed a good score, the best was +2 over net score by Nordin Bren who played a handicap 24. I played +4 over 92 gross for a 18 handicapper, never mind the scores we enjoyed the golfing experience.

We flew to Surabaya in the evening...