Semalam di Batam (1).....SouthLinks Golf and Country Club...

6th August 2009

Pakdokter was invited by Maulana Rosli Azad Khan to play a game of 'Charity Golf ' at the Indonesian island of Batam, south of Singapore, organised by Maulana Rosli's company which has a fabrication yard there, servicing the oil and gas industries of the region.

Flying to Batam from Kuala Lumpur these days has been made easy since the 'Malaysian Community Airline' - the Firefly - flies direct several times a week from Subang Airport. It took just about an hour and a half to reach Batam from Kuala Lumpur.

As we flew in to land at the Hang Nadim Airport, pakdokter could see that Batam is essentially an industrial outback, and to pakdokter's understanding,many of the industries have been set up by companies from Singapore which capitalised on the lower land and labour costs offerred by Batam.

Although the island is as large as Singapore, it has a population of about 1 million. Its main city is called Nagoya, and from pakdokter's hotel window, the city looks like Kota Baru in Kelantan some 20 years ago.

street market seen from the hotel window...

After checking into our hotel at the Panorama Residency Hotel at Nagoya, pakdokter, Maulana Rosli and Sheikh Kamal decided to play a round of golf at the Southlinks Country Club, located just about 20 minutes drive away from the hotel. Southlinks is the one of the oldest, if not the oldest, golf course on the island, and the appearance of the clubhouse itself is testimony of its age.

Being a week-day afternoon, there was hardly anyone else playing golf that afternoon except for another 4 or 5 flights of golfers from Malaysia who came in an hour later.

pakdokter, Maulana Rosli, Sheikh Kamal and the caddies...

Southlinks is a fairly flat course with many lakes all over the place. One has to deal with the water in almost every hole. From the blue tees the course measured 5875 metres and although pakdokter managed to par at the par-3 holes, the water traps destroyed pakdokter's game at the other holes resulting in ascore of 56/58. Even Maulana Rosli did not play his usual game. Only Sheikh Kamal was steady with 6 pars to boot with a score of 45/44 playing to a handicap of 16.

Pakdokter's caddy was a girl from Medan called 'Dedek'. She is a Roman Catholic, but every time pakdokter's ball was shanked into the lake, 'Dedek' would exclaim " Astaghfirullah.....".

Hearing this, Maulana Rosli told her that if pakdokter were to put the ball into water again at the last hole, she should next say....." Innalillaahh......"

We met up with associates in the oil and gas business from Jakarta as well as Pertamina officials that night for a dinner at the 'Harbour Bay' seafood restaurant to be followed by drinks at a 'live music' lounge at one of the entertainment clubs of Batam.