pakdoktergolfblog: July 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

On Freedom.....

they tell me:

if you see a slave sleeping

do not wake him lest he be dreaming of freedom

I tell them:

if you see a slave sleeping

wake him

and explain to him freedom

aku di beritahu mereka:

jika kau ketemu seorang hamba yang nyenyak tidur

jangun di kejut-bangunkan ia

kerana harus munkin ia sedang bermimpi enak tentang kebebasan

aku pula memberitahu mereka:

andai kau ketemu seorang hamba yang nyenyak tidur

kejut-bangunkan dia

dan terangkan kapadanya 'erti' kebebasan.....

Kahlil Gibran

Friday, July 24, 2009

Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 (VII): Pantai Indah Kapuk Damai Golf Resort...

As many of us had booked our return flights late on Sunday, 12 of the golfers booked to play an optional game at the Pantai Indah Kapuk Damai Golf Course, which is located not too far from the Sukarno-Hatta Airport. Playing on a Sunday proved to be costly, each of us had to fork out about 1.5 million rupiah each for the Sunday afternoon game.

Pantai Indah Kapuk is designed by Jack Nicklaus, and the trade-mark of Nicklaus's courses are its many long fairway bunkers and bunkers guarding the greens.

Although Indah Kapuk is a relatively flat course, but being located near the sea, the strong winds made it quite a challenge. Furthermore many of the fairways were lined by waterways - quite similar to the Pinehurst Golf Course in Bangkok. And the main central lake around which some of the holes and fairways were constructed made it a challenge to avoid the water.

Pakdokter and pakTgAzman settled to our regular matchplay and a confident pakTgAzman suggested we played to 60/20/20 right from the start. The other two in the flight, pakHyder and pakTgMuzaffar settled to just palying for the skins.

Right from the start pakTgAzman went 'amuk' like a 'Malay Hero' and pakdokter was resigned to a massacre. He led most of the way and by the time we were at the 6th hole pakTgAzman was 3 up with 3 to go! As luck would have had it pakdokter managed to win the remaining 3 to square the 1st Nine and win the 'dommy'.

As the common saying goes.....'dont disturb an injured tiger....' pakTgAzman could not take the little humiliation and doubled up for the 2nd Nine. What choice did pakdokter have.....?

But despite pakdokter's best, pakdokter must lift pakdokter's 'cap' to him for he played like a 'true champion'. With a fast deteriorating stamina, pakdokter could not match pakTgAzman who was blazing the course with 'full testosterone'. So at the end he won the 2nd Nine collecting all his dues which he used to pay for our lunch in good sporting spirits.

Congratulations pakAzman.......till we meet again......in Bogor?.....Shenzen...?.....Hong Kong.....?

flat but windy and challenged by many fairways and green bunkers...

pakRoslan,pakZaher,pakKhairulIzmy, pakSalehuddin...

pakZaher at the tee at Hole No. 1...

pakHyder ........

pakHyder getting out of the long fairway bunker...

coconut palms gave a resort feel to the golf course...

pakMuzaffar at the par-3....

the green is surrounded by sand all round...

and no one put the ball on the green...

pakAzman taking his second shot to the green....

at the tee at the 18th hole....pakMuzaffar..

the champion teeing off at hole 18.....pakAzman...

pulled his ball to the left.....

luckily not at the root of the tree....

but..ooops....masuk water.....

fairway of hole 18.....the white edge of the lake describes its name

Pantai Indah Kapuk Damai Course....

the clubhouse as we came in from hole 18....

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 (VI): Dinner and prize presentations at the Le Meridien...

The final dinner and the prize presentation award was held at the pool-side of the Le Meridien hotel. As we helped ourselves to the buffet dinner, we were entertained to a group of young musicians who called their band the 'Latina Acoustics'.

Some of the golfers took the chance to show off that they were equally good at singing as they were at golfing.

The overall winner for the 3-day game was pakAlewi Ariffin, who by the way, was the defending champion of the Staroba Medan Masters 2009 held in the middle of the year. Well done Alewi, hope to see you challenging for the title again at the next tour, the Staroba Bogor Escapades 2009 in October.....

Apart from the individual competition, a Ryder's Cup format game was also held between the team of Staroba Golf Club ( whose members are true-blue alumni of STAR) against the team who called themselves 'the Rest of the World' ( whose members were made up of alumni of MCKK, Sekolah Alam Shah, RMC, MRSM and even boarding schools in UK - the Tengku Brothers..) The record so far has been that Staroba had won 11 times as against 2 for the Rest of the World. Well, for this trip, the Rest of the World took the bounty with a score of 435 against 420. Well done, the Rest of the World....

the Latina Acoustics...

pakRoslan singing a song backed by the local musicians..

the Glokal Golfer with his thumbs up sign....

and his tee-shirts tells the whole story......

Datuk Hadi Derus, Mihdzor, Husni?, Norahim,

Sirajudin, Hazman Wong....

Tg Mizaffar, Tg Azman, Hamid Ibrahim...

Mrs and Mr Shaber ( Staroba Golf captain), Salehudin, Wan Zin, Sheikh Feisal..

Dato Baharuddin and family with pakdokter's partner at extreme right....

the UMNO gang from Kedah......

Mansor Bahari, Jalalluddin?, Gani Ismail...

patut depa kalah 'election'....asyik dok main golf aja.....

Hj Amin Jidon and family with

pakdokter's partner (standing)...

3rd overall winner, Gani Ismail, receiving his Jusco vouchers

from axed..oops...ex-Minister Dato Zainal Abidin Osman....

2nd overall winner, Khairul Izmy.....

defending champion of the Medan Masters 2009 came out champion again

at the Staroba Jakarta Open 2009.....Mr Alewi Ariffin....

Mr Alewi Ariffin being interviewed after a short victory speech...

the Staroba Golf Club Captain ( Shaber) presenting the

Ryder's Cup winnings to the captain of the Rest of the World team

bapak Sirajuddin Ahmad.......

Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 (V) : The Royale Jakarta or Halim 3.....

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.....

'My handicap is 24 and I am proud of it!....'

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 (IV) : Rancamaya Golf Resort, Bogor...

17th July 2009

The second game of the Staroba Jakarta Open 2009 was played at the Rancamaya Golf Resort in Bogor. We left the hotel early and upon arrival at the club at around 8 am, pakHyder was the first to be informed by a friend of his from the Maldives that there was a terrorist bombing at 2 Jakarta hotels. Soon after a few others started to receive sms's reporting the incident and the local TV station broadcasted 'live breaking news' about the incident.

Having being reassured that our 'partners' at the downtown hotel were safe we proceeded to play the second round of the games.

all ready to go......

The Rancamaya Golf Course is probably the best course in the Bogor region. From the blue tees the course measured 6471 yards. Being located on high altitude, the air was cool but for some reason that day it was also very windy which made the game much more challenging. The scenery from some holes were great with a good view of the extinct Mount Salak in the background. Many luxurious villas lined the fairways.

pakMuzaffar, pakdokter, pakSheikhYahya and pakZahazuddin..

Pakdokter played with pakSheikh, pakZaha and regular golf buddy at the RSGC, the younger Tengku Muzaffar. Based on the previous day's score, pakdokter was assigned a handicap of 25. Despite the strong wind and a much longer and difficult course with a more tricky green, pakdokter managed to return a considerably better score of 33 stableford points. PakMuzaffar, who scored 33 at the Imperial the day before however could not cope with the challenge ( or maybe the caddies!) and returned a score of 28. The real casualties were pakSheikh Yahya and pakZaha. Both were at one time regular winners at the Staroba Monthly medals. However nothing worked for pakSheikh that day who came home with 23 points and pakZaha who accumulated only 25 stableford points.

Pakdokter and pakMuzaffar came out 5th and 4th respectively in the ball-sweep for the 1st Nine while the overall winner for the day was pakSheikh Feisal who came home with a total score of 38.

We were 'supposed' to have dinner at the Marriot Hotel that night and due to the bombing, the venue was changed to the Raja Laut Seafood Restaurant located in Jakarta Timur.