The final game of the Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 was played at the new Royale Jakarta Golf Course, also known as Halim 3. This course is located near the old Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, which is now a military airport.
Pakdokter had played at this course in October last year and the club-house was not even quite ready yet. Pakdokter remembered that this was quite a tough golf course but interesting and challenging.
Pakdokter was in the 7th flight, the other members being pakHamidIbrahim, a fellow RSGC member, pakDatukHadiDeros (pakdokter's schoolmate who recently retired as the CEO of TNB) and pakDatukBaharuddin, a regular and active associate member of the Staroba Golf Club.
As fate would have had it, pakdokter's regular buddies from RSGC, pakTgAzman was in the 8th flight behind pakdokter and his younger sibling pakTgMuzaffar was in the 6th flight in front of pakdokter.
Before pakdokter's flight was allowed to tee-off, pakTgAzman challenged pakdokter to a matchplay by comparing our cards at the end of the game on a wager of 30/10/10. Pakdokter doubled it to 60/20/20 which pakTgAzman had to accept otherwise it would look like he had no 'guts!'.
Pakdokter hit a fantastic drive which split the fairway to quite a long distance. From the corner of pakdokter's eyes, pakdokter could see that pakTgAzman was quite surprised by the 'drive'. But that was about the best that pakdokter could do for the day. Pakdokter was thoroughly exhausted and tired from having to nurse pakRais in his room from 3 am to 7 am that morning and the 'shock' revelation of the true identity of Rais@Rosmah Mansor was still numbing pakdokter's nerves - so there was very little left for pakdokter to give into the game.
Pakdokter double-bogeyed the 1st hole, bogeyed the next par-3 and carded a 9 for the next par-5. Pakdokter knew that pakTgAzman would be anxious to know how pakdokter performed after the great first drive and would definitely, at the first opportunity try to check pakdokter's scores.
Our flight had to wait at the 4th hole, ( the flight in front where pakRais and the younger sibling pakTgMuzaffar was playing was slow - maybe pakRais was tired or weak or pakTgMuzaffar had planned this with his elder brother to frustrate pakdokter) and as pakdokter noticed that pakTgAzman's flight was fast catching up, pakdokter rounded up the other 3 golfers and made them agree to 'pull a fast one' when pakTgAzman arrived at the tee. We agreed to tell pakTgAzman, should he asked anyone of us, that pakdokter had a par at hole-1, a birdie at hole-2 and a bogey at hole-3. And that pakdokter had been taking the 'honour' at every hole since the start. Pakdokter had hoped that this would rattle pakTgAzman's game and with a little bit of luck, pakdokter may be able to pull off the game from him and pakdokter promised the three that pakdokter will share the 'booty' with them.....
How predictable pakTgAzman was......but he did not ask for pakdokter's score from any of the golfers.....instead he quietly went to pakdokter's caddy and asked her what pakdokter's scores were. Of course the poor innocent caddy ( who was not involved in the scheme) would not lie to him.......So after pakdokter somewhat loudly confirmed with the other golfers that it was pakdokter's honour and sent a rather lousy drive, pakTgAzman shouted....' Hey doc.....dont try to cheat me ya....I am 3 up......'
Well, to make the long story short, pakdokter generally played a 'horrible' game that day returning home with a stableford score of only 21 points despite playing to a handicap of 26. PakTgAzman gleefully checked in with a score of 38 points and was the champion of the day playing to a handicap of 24.
Pakdokter did not even bother to compare our cards and just paid pakTgAzman his dues.......
Well, despite all the intrigues, pakdokter must admit that pakTgAzman is a 'good' golfer. As he said he always played well overseas. He was placed 2nd during the Surabaya tour early this year and he again proved himself against pakdokter at Koh Samui recently and in this tour he came out overall 6th for the 3-day games.
He is what pakdokter would consider a 'Golfer Melayu Glokal' - as our pakNajibRazak would like all of us,Melayus, to become. He is a good global golfer but just beneath his skin he is nothing but just another Melayu......!
pakRais, pakSheikhFeisal, pakMihdzor, Uncle Jul....despite the bout of vomitting the night before, pakRais completed 18-holes of golf...
pakKhairulIzmy, pakWanZin, pakHjAmin, pakZaher?..
pakWanHusin, pakMuzaffar, pakRahman, pakSalehudin..
pakHamid, pakHadi, pakBaharuddin, pakdokter...
hole No. 1...South Course...
look at the 'serai'...if your ball goes there, forget it...
awat flight depan ni slow sangat.....betting 'heavy' kuuut......or pakTgMuzaffar saja nak bagi kita 'frus'.....
ooops....sorry Datuk....masuk pond....
the clubhouse....
pakHamid had no problem at the tee and sent his ball to the fairway...
sunset at Royale Jakarta......
pakBaharuddin at the tee....
3rd day champion with 38 points....pakTgAzman.....yeeea.....
ooops....sorry Datuk....masuk pond....
the clubhouse....
pakHamid had no problem at the tee and sent his ball to the fairway...
sunset at Royale Jakarta......
pakBaharuddin at the tee....
3rd day champion with 38 points....pakTgAzman.....yeeea.....'My handicap is 24 and I am proud of it!....'
2 comments:
Pakdokter and the golfers in his flight were very sneaky. PakHamid Ibrahim agreed to be in cohorts with Pak Dokter in the scheme - even though we've known each other for 30 odd years, since Edinborough days. Hamid, pension tak cukup ke? - Yang hang mesti cari other source of income. Anyway, you guys were betting on the wrong horse...it's not even a horse..maybe a mule. Being a doctor, even a psychiatrist, he had to carry a lot of burden - for one the Rais Mansor case.
However, I give credit to how well Pakdokter was able to read people - me in particular. Awal-awal lagi he was able to see that I will whip him good at this tournament.Syabas doc. Hidup Golfer Melayu Glokal!
Pakdokter, my apologies for sounding too cocky in my earlier posting. Tapi, you using all the tricks in the psychiaterist's book is a bit of an underhand tactic. I just want to put on record that I enjoyed the challenge and I must thank you for being a looser and a gentleman .....unlike our Pak Hyder - kalah sikit aja dah tak mahu bet lagi. he is a real chicken ****.
Also for the record, you and Pak Hyder agreed to play scratch with me till end of the year irrespective of the venue. Contrary to Pak Hyder's assertion that the agreement is only valid in RSGC, my friend Bobby (Raja Azimah's husband)was a witness to this. When we played in Equatorial Bangi, Hyder commented that he has an agreement with me to play scratch and we did play scratch where Hyder did win by a small margin. That is definitely a precedent and a proof! So Hyder, don't be a chicken **** and loose gracefully like the good doc, o.k?
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