The Macau Golf and Country Club is another club that has a reciprocal arrangement with the RSGC enabling us to play as guests for a free green fee. Zahardin, who rested on Sunday and accompanied his partner, Fiona, and my partner to tour the heritage sites of Macau came along for a game with us.
We took a taxi from our hotel with a note from the hotel receptionist who had scribbled in Chinese on a piece of paper the Macau Golf and Country Club. We had learnt from our experience the day before when nobody could read the English version of the Lakewood Golf Course in China!
The taxi driver dropped Zahardin and pakdokter at a golf course and by the time he had left we realised that we were at the wrong golf course! All the time I had thought that Macau has one and only one golf course. Apparently there was this one being newly constructed and not even fully completed yet....The clubhouse was not open yet and the Nepalese guards knew nothing about how to help us get to our correct destination.
pak Zahardin posed for this memorable shot at the entrance of the Orient Golf Club, Macau...As expected, Hyder came to our rescue. Tengku Azman and Hyder had left the hotel in another taxi much later than us and was surprised to find out that we were not there yet. On checking the golf club receptionist must have suspected that we were dropped off at the partially completed Orient Golf Club near the Venetian and scrambled a taxi to pick us up.
a sleepy and reliefed pakdokter at the hilltop clubhouse of the Macau Golf and Country Club
sunrise at the Macau Country Club...
the club swimming pool and the driving range where you hit your balls into the sea..We registered ourselves to tea-off at 8.04 am (prebooked from KL) and had breakfast at the clubhouse. We had actually left the hotel at 6.00 am! We only paid about 700 Macau dollars for 2 buggies....(about RM150 per buggy)
Hyder, Tengku Azman, pakdokter and Zahardin at the 1st tee....
Tengku Azman at the tee at hole No. 1 while Hyder looked on..Macau Golf and Country Club is a par 71 course measuring 5989 yards from the blue tee. Although it is a relatively shot course it was not an easy one as the fairways are tight with very hilly terrain and being on a mountainous site overlooking the sea, the forces of the wind came into play often.
look at how narrow the fairway is and the sea is on the left of the fairway...The course played host to the Grand Lisboa Macau Open the day before so the green speed was at least 11. It was a challenge to play this course. Many of us lost our balls to the wind which swept them out into the sea...
many holes had this kind of panoramic sea-view.....As on the first day, to be fair to everyone, we decided to play a game of partnerships, rotating the partnerships after every 6 holes. At the same time, Hyder, Tengku Azman and pakdokter also played a game against each other on a small stake.
Pakdokter was lucky this time, winning every partnership in all the 3 sixes.
pakdokter posing on a cliffside overlooking the South China Sea....Pakdokter scored 53/53, Tengku Azman returned 58/59 and Hyder carded 56/52. So you can guess who collected the most pocket money! Anyway the winnings were generously spent on a delicious serving of Macau sole fillets during lunch at the clubhouse. And the bottle of cold 'Macau' brewed by Kirin never tasted so good...
the par 3 hole 17th on the beach front seen from the cliff where hole No. 16 is...After lunch we rushed back to the hotel to check out and catch the ferry back to Hong Kong for another two nights in Hong Kong.
the sea all the way on the left flank of fairway 18...
one of the bridges that connect downtown Macau to the other island where the Venetian and the Macau Golf Resort were located... this shot taken from the ferry leaving Macau for Hong Kong
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