The return flight on Sunday was at 7.00 pm, so pakdokter had one whole day to kill and decided to try out the New Kuta Golf Course located at Pecatu/Jimbaran district of Bali. It was an easy 30 minutes drive out of Kuta and after ascending the hills of Jimbaran and passing by the Udayana University ( where many Malaysians study at its medical school), the golf club welcomes you with a grand sculpture at its entrance typical of the many monuments decorating Jakarta round-abouts.
The 'Bali Dreamland' is a massive development consisting of luxury residential zones, the golf course and entertainment complexes. The pricipal personalities behind this project, according to pakdokter's supir, are pak Cendana and pak Tommy Suharto. The geological characteristic of this district is mainly of limestone earth, and pakdokter can imagine how much it would have cost the developer to ship tonnes of volcanic earth for the top-soil in order to allow for trees and grass to grow in this area. Pakdokter's supir said that this region was originally 'tanah gersang' (meaning barren land ).
Pakdokter was alone that morning and was hoping to be included into any flights of local or tourist golfers. But as luck would have it, pakdokter could not be fitted anywhere and so had to play alone with a 19 year old girl, Seni, from Singaraja, acting as pakdokter's caddy. Seni had just finished SMA ( high school) a year ago, was introduced to the golf course by a cousin who works in the team maintaining the course and greens. She was put in training for 6 months before she was certified fit and qualified to caddy. She earns 600,000 rupiahs ( about RM180) a month with free medical benefit. She caddies about 3 to 5 times a week and earns 'extras' from tips given by the golfers.
The New Kuta Golf Course is a links course and was completed about 3 years ago. It hosted the Indonesian Open 2009 in February which was won by Thongchai Jaidee. The course looks wide and open but the roughs were dangerously thick. The winds can be strong due to the fact that it is located along a hilly terrain by the cliffs of Jimbaran.
par-3 hole No.6
a 'pura' (Balinese temple) at hole 15, overlooking the sea...The surroundings around holes 14, 15 and 16 are the most scenic, as they look down the steep cliffs towards Uluwatu peninsula as well as towards Kuta.
Playing from the blue tees, the course measured 6000 metres. Pakdokter did quite well in the 1st Nine, hitting pars on both par-3 holes and a score of 45. The 2nd Nine was more challenging as the fairways became more narrow with the breeze across the cliff coming into play. However it was a gentle and cooling breeze which helped pakdokter return a gross of 49. Not bad...
the barren limestone ground will be topped with volcanic soil and prepared for the construction of holiday villas, according to pakdokter's caddy 'Seni', mostly for the Koreans...
If one does not fancy staying at the crowded and noisy Kuta, there are 2 hotels around the golf course itself - the Le Grande Hotel and the Best Western Kondotel. Perched on a cliff overlooking the sea is the 'Klub Kelapa' - a pyramid-shaped structure housing the night-club, bars and karaoke joints to keep you occupied at night.
the Best Western Kondotel at Dreamland New Kuta....
the le Grande Hotel...
Playing golf in Bali, however, is not cheap. It cost USD 170 at the New Kuta, USD 160 at Nusa Dua, USD 165 at Bali Nirvana and USD 140 at Bali Handara Kossaido.
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