PON HLAING GOLF CLUB, YANGON

The Pun Hlaing Golf Club is a 7,012 yard Gary Player Signature layout that offers some of Asia's most challenging and rewarding golf holes set in a mature, manicured tropical landscape which is bordered by lakes, the Hlaing River and the grand mansions of the Pun Hlaing Residential Estate in the background.

Pun Hlaing is a private golf club that regularly hosts the Asian Tour and welcomes international golfers for weekday rounds and, occasionally, slots during the weekends.

We called the Club to book our tee-time and got a morning slot to avoid the traffic chaos leading to the industrial estate. Unfortunately the caddy said no SLR camera was allowed so only camera phones was used!

There were more than 80 caddies available at the club when we arrived in the morning and we got the most experienced caddy albeit not the prettiest caddy..but I think they are beautiful ladies.

Pun Hlaing GC is now the finest golf club and course in Myanmar and its a private property. This was my second time playing here and the course was great and play was fun and we scored really well in the mid eighties!

Happy golfing!

YANGON CITY GOLF CLUB, MYANMAR

When Joe Lwin of United Woodworking Pte, Ltd. suggested that we play at The Yangon City Golf Club, little that we knew he was once a Champion there with a score of 73 gross! And he suggested we do not use buggy and walked the Silvery course. Established in 1994, the club has 36 holes but at this time of the year the course was soggy!

For all the walking effort, we were delighted that there were ladies as caddies and they were pretty too..if you are unable to define pretty just look at the girl selling used golf balls! 

This was my first time playing the Yangon City Golf Club and it was better than Yangon Golf Club and they were both in the same location. There was also a 136 room Hotel nearby called the City Golf Resort Hotel.

After the game we went to a local restaurant for dinner.

YANGON GOLF CLUB, MYANMAR

October 2013 I was in Yangon, Myanmar for some timber sourcing activities where meetings, field visits to log yards, timber depots, Teak wood factories seemed to be the order of the day for a few days before finally got some time to play golf with some Myanmar friends!

 The first course we played was at the Yangon Golf Club, established in 1909 and about 25 km north of Yangon and regularly hosted the Asian PGA golf circuit. This was the second time I played this course.

The men caddies employed at the club were good golfers, some are low handicappers and they helped a lot with course management and reading of the greens. The caddies knew our strength and weaknesses after a few holes and believe me trust them if you have to play with one more club than your own selection...

Yes..you can play with 5 people in 1 flight.

PANTAI KAPUK INDAH GOLF CLUB

Third day pairing, again with Hj Sanusi, Hj Aziz and me, we played off the 10th tee while the other 2 flights played off the 1st tee!

The story began the night before, a late shopping at Pasar Baroe at Asia Golf and bought a brand new Mizuno golf bag to match my Mizuno golf clubs, also bought a pair of Vokeys at bargain price!

I have been using a pair of 56 and 60 degrees wedges and made the switch to 54 and 58 degrees Titleist Vokeys for the final day golf!

Hj Aziz is my Perangsang golf buddy and we played almost every weekend together and he was the one who coaxed me into joining this Jakarta golfing tour.

My first tee off was good and the caddy said `bagus bangat Pak!' the second shot reached the apron and I said to myself this could be my day and as it turned out it was!

My flight mate Hj Sanusi also played well with 4 pars but could not beat me as I played with 5 pars and a birdie! The result was obvious, Champion for the third day with 41 points!

Result:-
Abdullah 41 points
Hj Sanusi 38 points
Nor Azman 36 points

Nor Azman was a winner for all three days but sorry, my win with 41 points take all...the caddies haha!

Until next time, Happy Golfing!

ROYALE JAKARTA GOLF CLUB

A few years back it used to be Bogor Raya Golf Club, a club not to be missed when golfing in Jakarta, now its Royale Jakarta where Asian PGA championship are often held..and I am going to find out what's so special about this golf club.

The first thing you noticed is the length, playing off the Blue Tee..not really my cup of tea! Except for the Par 3s, my second shots were all 3 woods and still another 50-80 yards for the third shot! Realizing that is not my ideal golf course, I spent more time taking photos as opposed to playing golf..can't remember my score, must be close to 100 I think!

I played with AK and Hj Sanusi (again!) and the three of us played really fast! The course was really great but the weather was surprisingly hot after the rain the day before. I asked my caddy about my score and she said there were more double than bogeys...and not a single par.

My flight mate Ahmad Kamaruddin or AK enjoying his outing at Royale Jakarta, 2nd place prize with 33 points! I am sure his caddy helped a lot!

Remind me not to wear blue t-shirt when playing at Royale Jakarta!

Result:-

Nor Azman 36 points

AK 33 points (ocb)

Roslan 33 points

My other flight mate is Hj Sanusi who flew the ball 100 yards passed me!

Tomorrow Pantai Kapok Indah GC!

IMPERIAL GOLF KLUB, JAKARTA

Jakarta has always been a favourite destination amongst Malaysian golfers for its beautiful golf courses, great clubhouse and pretty caddies, not only pretty but read the lines very well too...

This year year I have an opportunity to visit Jakarta earlier than expected as another group requested for 2 more balls due to late withdrawal of their regular member, so I booked online on Malaysia Airline for RM 442 and bought a front seat another RM40 ended up paying RM482 and got front seats 5D and 5F...not that I wanted to arrive faster..

It was raining all the way from Soekarta Hatta Airport to Imperial Golf Klub and I got to Play with Hj Sanusi, Hj Aziz and Colonel Marzukee. Both Hj Sanusi and Colonel blasted their tee-off miles ahead of me and Hj.Aziz and claimed their handicap only 20!

Colonel Marzukee played very well and scored a gross 81 and got second place prize for the day!

1st day placing :-

Mohd Fauzi 38 points

Marzukee 36 points

Nor Azman 36 points

Tomorrow at Royale Jakarta...

NORTHLANDS GOLF COURSE, VANCOUVER, CANADA

Mr Lim and I decided to play the nearest golf course in Vancouver that was Northlands Golf Course which was wisely recommended by the hotel staff at the Sutton Place Hotel. I have previously stayed in this hotel in 2011 and found the location was very good for dining and shopping which is the Robson Street. Robson Street is the famous shopping and dining street where Banana Leaf Restaurant is located and lots of Asean Restaurants too! Shopping branded items is also a must and I bought a Samsonite bag at a bargain...

Since we are talking about golf, here are some photos of this golf course which is about 25 km from Vancouver! We paid CAD 50 for the Titleist rental set which was the 913 series and Scotty Cameron putter..

We were late for our tee-off time due to unexpected traffic jam but the starter was kind enough to let off the group behind us to go first and he informed everybody at the 1st tee box that we are golf professionals from Malaysia and just arrived from the airport...As we only play two balls, he asked another two balls to join us, so Greg from Australia and Watney from Vancouver played with us...Greg by the way is a 8 handicapper!

That's Greg and me, we both played 88 gross because he sprayed his tee shot into the woods many times,,,

As for me and Lim, we were all square with 88, such as nice course and great golf sets too...while we waited for the city cab to arrive, I bought a t-shirt at Club Pro-shop and saw a notice about selling all the available rental sets on the 14th September for only CAD 1,000, but we were scheduled to fly home on the 11th..