WET AND SOGGY PERANGSANG

Way to go..golf swing sequence of Ah Lok!!

Chinese New Year holidays was spent partly playing golf with Chinese friend at PTGC, Rawang.

I was a member of PTGC for a good 8 years before deciding to part with this beautiful but wet golf course near Bukit Tukun, Rawang. When Mr. Tan called and ask me to organize a flight on Tuesday, I readily accepted and called 2 more officemates to join us. Like I said, PTGC was wet and soggy this week, unable to enjoy golf but we played allright, a few pars here and there and I played 49 and 45, still below 100. The three other flightmates were unable to break 100.

The golf swing sequence of us here is not to be followed..yet! There are many flaws especially on the downswing and follow through, weight transfer etc. Then again, we are just casual golfers..too lazy to practice and most of our lessons came from watching golf videos at Youtube!

Looking at my own golf swing, I notice that the body is no longer as flexible as it used to be, can hardly complete the back swing and the body turn, no wonder tha ball didn't go very far nowadays! Hmm..have to do something about this to do better at Bukit Beruntung this Saturday!!!

KUNDANG LAKES CNY SPECIAL

The main organizer of CIMB Chicken Tour (Golf) has to excuse the eight of us for not partcipating in the regular event at Kundang Lakes Golf Club. Simply because Mr Mansor from University Malaya has also booked 2 flights on the same morning, thus prompted the splitting of events. I was placed 3rd from the previous event (38 points system 36) but have to pass this time around. So we have another group of Kheiruddin, Hj Wan Munir, Hj Nor Zainal, Sharol, Sabri, Mansor, Nik Shehar and Bangdolah competing for free `coconut drinks' and `kerepok lekur' at Tasik Biru after the game. Free means there will be some losers paying for them. See these three guys playing from the drop zone at the Par 3 11 hole..now you know who was 3 up at that hole!



Atek and Sharol were playing after our group and wanted me to shoot the golf swing sequence. I will upload them in Youtube when I can recover the forgotten password!

KUNDANG LAKES - NON GOLFING

You can enjoy a trip to Kundang Lakes or Tasik Biru without your golf bags because there is also a huge lake called the Blue Lagoon or Tasik Biru where a family outing is favourable. We can see a lot of outdoor loving family and couples crowding this place on the weekends.

Jet ski is the favourite pastime and activities here with old men, young men and girls and boys are showing their skills riding the jet ski. Others were just satisfied with the cool dip in the clear water which at certain spots are shallow enough for safe swimming.






Golf course is just 1,500 meters away and also crowded during weekends.

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.