It took us about one hour by a turbo-jet ferry to reach Macau from Hong Kong. The ferry was a comfortable ride and we were served a dinner of a pasta dish with soft drinks and coffee. A taxi from the ferry terminal took us to our hotel, the Metropark Macau, which was a walking distance away from the brand new Grand Lisboa Casino in downtown Macau.
Pak Zahardin and his partner, Fiona, joined pakdokter and partner to the Venetian, the grand casino of Macau for a tour of the gambling floor and later had dinner at an Italian restaurant there. My partner and Zahardin and co. booked to see the Cirque de Soleil for Sunday night, the show was staged at the theatre at the Venetian.
the Lakewood Golf Club clubhouse viewed from hole No. 9...
Early Sunday morning, the three musketeers of pakdokter, Tengku Azman and Mr Hyder Ali, lugged our golf bags and a backpack of a day's change of clothes to the border checkpoint of Macau-Zhuhai. The thousands of commuters standing in queue to go through the immigration checkpoint of Macau and then China, was a sight to be experienced! However I must admit that the flow was continous and we were through in less than an hour.
The ever resourceful Hyder Ali tried to organise a taxi to take us to the Lakewood Golf Club, only to find out that noboby read English in this country. So he approached a sweet lady at the bus ticket counter who phoned up the club which then helped the girl to transcribe the Lakewood Golf Club into chinese characters!
We then realised that we were in China and both Tengku and Hyder had only HKD in their wallet! Luckily pakdokter saved the day because he had some renminbis in his wallet being the balance of his 'winnings' from the previous trip to Kunming...
It took us about 35 minutes to reach the Lakewood Golf Club and the taxi fare made us about 80 yuan poorer. Along the way we drove past a very brand new and vibrant city with proud apartment towers and shopping malls standing tall along beautiful coastal drive-ways. One can be mistaken for driving along the coast of Florida!
pakdokter and Hyder Ali at the golf-station...
Hyder Ali, pakdokter and Tengku Azman at the tee of hole No.1...Sunday was a busy day at the Lakewood Club. We had booked our tee-off time from the RSGC, taking advantage of the reciprocal arrangments that existed between our two clubs. What we did not realise was that for the weekends we had to pay half of the normal green fees ( free green fees for weekdays only), so we ended up paying 200 yuan for the green fee and 300 yuan for the buggy and caddy for each golfer.
pakdokter and Hyder Ali in the company of the local caddies...note the industrial type crash helmets!Having come this far we were not going to sulk over this and the prospect of playing in this great looking course made us forget all the dissapoinment. We were welcomed by an indoor cascading waterfall as we walked down to the changing room and the lockers were fitted with the latest elctronic key that only China can boast of, I think.
The caddies were fitted with an industrial-type crash helmet over their usual cap to protect them from being hit by straying golf balls. The gentleman caddy who served pakdokter spoke good English.......pakdokter was indeed impressed!
The caddies were of great help, they read putting lines with accuracy all the time. We just had to get used to the realtively fast green speed.
pakdokter hitting the ball out of a fairway bunker...The Lakewood Golf Club has two 18's, the first 18 called the Mountain Course and the second being the Lake Course. We were slotted to play the Mountain 18, a par 72 course measuring a total of 6217 yards.
Tengku Azman at the tee...The course is generally quite friendly with wide fairways but the undulating mountain terrain and occasional lakes made some holes quite challenging.
The three of us decided to play 'skins' on a small bet and an individual game against each other on the side.
It was a bright sunny day made cool by a pleasant early winter temperature of around 15 degrees celcius. It could not have been better for golf!
one of the few holes where water came into play..Pakdokter returned a score of 49/51, Hyder carded 51/53 and Tengku Azman came home with a score of 47/48. Obviously the casualty of the day was Hyder Ali,but to be fair to him he was actually sufferring from a broken tooth which affected his concentration and play.
one of the more difficult holes....We gladly spent our winnings for a light dinner after the game, Hyder had to settle for a delicious bowl of fish porridge which Tengku also savoured while pakdokter decided to try the famously recommended beef noodle soup! And a bottle of cool Tsingtao helped wash down the food....
putting on a generally fast green...We asked the club to call a taxi for us and it only cost us 100 yuan to take us back to the frontier checkpoint to Macau. We had to once again queue with the thousands of commuters from China into Macau, but again despite of the numbers I must admit that they have got their system right as we were out of the monstrous complex within an hour.
dragging our golf bag accross the 'Tien-an-Mien' like square in front of the immigration complex of Zhuhai to return to Macau..As RSGC has 5 reciprocal golf clubs in this part of China, we were determined that next year we will come and play in China for a week first before descending on Hong Kong for the interport match.
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