Medan Re-Visited (111)...

Sunday, 25th April 2010

As all of us were booked to fly back to KL at 345 pm Sunday afternoon, we had to wake up very early on Sunday morning to tee off at 6.30 am!

The third game was also played at the Royal Sumatra, this being the best course in Medan plus it was also located near enough to the airport. And since it was a Sunday morning, and we had assumed that the majority Catholic residents of Medan would be going to church, we had hoped that the golf course would not be so crowded.

What we did not anticipate was the hundreds of health-conscious city folks who came to the golf course to walk and jog along the tracks of the course. And some of their children even wandered into the fairways, oblivious of the risks of wild golf shots from us!

The presence of these joggers affected our game and pakdokter, despite a generous handicap of 28, came home with worse scores than that of the first day!

this guy was even doing his 'stretch' on the ladies tee

while we were waiting to tee off from the blue tee...

Medan Re-Visited (11)...

Saturday, 24th April 2010

This trip to Medan was not a 'sanctioned' trip of the Staroba Golf Club. It was an impromptu decision, originally by 'Uncle Jul a.k.a K.J Jul' and some of his friends to be followed by regular overseas traveller pakAli Ariffin and gang. As such each of the foursomes made their own flight and hotel bookings. Pakdokter depended on pakRais Mansor who has made Medan his 'second home'....and pakRais booked pakdokter at the Asean International Hotel which turned out to be quite a good choice. The executive room was comfortable and the Malaysian General Manager made sure we had a comfortable stay.

PakRais Mansor, being the 'ground-handling agent' for pakdokter and pakRosli did a great job at introducing us to several local restaurants instead of the usual Padang food we got in past trips. We dined at Rumah Makan Jemadi where the main dish was 'steamed bawal putih' with ginger and taucu somewhat Chinese style. And the Padang outlets he took us to also had a more varied and rich dishes in their offerrings. Below pakdokter has captured some of the dishes we sampled at restaurants introduced to us by our 'new agent'....

crispy fried tiger prawns..

and oxtail curry...

kari kepala ikan...


ulam petai etc and kerabu kacang panjang..

grilled fish....

ayam kampung goreng...

lobster....wow..

after all these lunches and dinner...

how not to become 'gendut?'....

Pakdokter was very impressed with pakRais's choice and selection. He was especially good at choosing great 'chicken' dishes....the one that pakdokter was most impressed was his choice of 'ayam kampung dara'. This young little chicken came out very tender and soft to the bite but needed the right 'rempah' to bring out the taste. Pakdokter preferred more wholesome but less young chicken with sweet meat which suited pakdokter's palate better....

Enough about food and now back to golf. The second day's game was played at the Royal Sumatra Golf Resort. The club-house which was under construction for the past 3 years was now seeing some progress. The club-house will be ready by July when the club will host the Asean Golf Championship.

The golf course was also in good shape. Pakdokter, whose handicap was adjusted to 27 based on the previous day's score came home with 33 stableford points. PakRais Mansor maintained his game but pakRosli sadly was probably still affected by problems at his work-place.

Medan Re-visited (1).......

Friday, 23rd April 2010

This trip to Medan was a last minute decision after pakAli Arifin told pakdokter at the Staroba April Medal that they were short of 3 balls to make a full contingent of four flights of golfers. With pakRais Mansor into the count, pakdokter managed to rope in pakRosli from Jakarta to the tally. Unfortunately, at the last minute, pakWan Husin had to withdraw due to the passing away of his elderly father, leaving only 15 of us to play in Medan.

To pakWan Husin, pakdokter wishes to express pakdokter's condolence to you and your family.

All of us reached Medan Friday morning, some on MH and some on Airasia except for pakRosli who came on Lion Air from Jakarta. The first 3 flights went ahead to Graha Metropolitan for the mid-morning game while pakdokter and pakRais had to wait a while for pakRosli to arrive from Jakarta. We stopped for lunch at a Padang restaurant before proceeding to Graha.

Graha Metropolitan is a walking course. Despite having played here for the past consecutive 3 or 4 years, pakdokter had little memory of the club until pakdokter reached the course.

Medan was still experiencing its hot and dry spell and the course was in quite a good shape. Unfortunately, that afternoon the club hosted a local competition with about 80 participants and our 2nd Nine was considerably slowed down by the crowded course.

PakRais, who played to the lowest handicap in our flight collected a few hundred thousand rupiahs from pakdokter and pakRosli in our little 'side game'. Pakdokter only managed to gather about 28 stableford points. PakRais came home with 35 points to be among the top of the 15 players in the first day of the tour.

PakRosli did not play his usual game as his mind was probably distracted by problems at his company's plant in Batam where the local workers went amuk in a 'racial' riot against some of the expatriate executives and workers.

pakRosli kelihatan begitu 'gusar' sekali...


coma pakRais saja yang kelihatan 'sihat'...

dan 'riang...'

pakRaid bersama Erni...

cewek-cewek ini bilang pakdokter sudah 'gendut' ya....

dari 'body language' nya,

pakRosli kelihatan 'kecewa' sekali...

pakRais degan aksi 'jaguh' nya..

lagi pakRais dengan 'aksi' kejaguhan...

Staroba April Medal : The Bukit Unggul Country Club...

Sunday, 18th April 2010

The Staroba April Medal was held at the Bukit Unggul Country Club on Sunday afternoon and about 30 or so golfers took part in this event. Pakdokter had not played at this course for a few years and was surprised at the good condition of the course. Obviously the management has done a good job at maintaining the course.

The course, although short, was made challenging by the narrow fairways that demand accurate and straight shots to keep your ball in play. The valleys, drains and deep roughs in all the holes were always a challenge and without the help of caddies most of us lost a lot of balls throughout the game. At the end of the day, pakdokter returned with a fairly commendable score of 28 stableford points or thereabouts but not good enough to win any prizes. Only pakYuzer Yusof, who played in pakdokter's flight took away one of the 9 prizes by scoring 33 stableford points or so. The other players in pakdokter's flight was pakAli Ariffin and pakHamid Shafie. All these guys were pakdokter's juniors in STAR.

The winner was Redzuan Yusoff who also took the bounty from the bull's eye pool for the day.

Yuzer teeing off at hole-10

Hamid Shafie at the tee as Ali Ariffin looked on..

these monkeys took away our 100-plus drinks from the buggy..

Nordin MD was one of the winners that day...

he has improved in his game after recovering from surgery last year...

Redzuan Yusof, April Medal winner..

who also hit the bull's eye pool...

Miri Discovery 11 : The Miri Golf Club....

Saturday, 17th April 2010

Saturday was a hot and humid day. Miri Golf Club is located downtown and at a glance the golf course reminded pakdokter of the Morib Golf Course. The flat walking course is located on an island at the estuary of a river fronting the town of Miri.

The course is characterised by very narrow fairways flanked by the sea on one side and a main road that bisected the two Nines of the course.

The hot and humid weather took its toll on most of us. Pakdokter played with KK Nyam, Lim Cheng Yeow and Patrick and most of us played a miserable game that day. Pakdokter came home with just 15 stableford points and fortunately for pakdokter that a few others played worse and one of pakdokter flight mates did not even make 10 points for the whole game.

We had lunch at the club and the overall winner for the 2-day game was Edmund Chiam, the golf section convener of the Royal Lake Club.

some of the RLC golfers before tee-off at hole-1 Miri Golf Club..

General Yunus Tasi at the tee..

Kasim Sotin...

Hari Prasad...

Lim Cheng Yeow, Patrick,KK Nyam and pakdokter..

a lovely Malay house at one of the fairways...

riverine houses and Miri City...

fish or prawns?.....

most of the golfers are 'seniors'.....

and it was not easy walking in the heat and humidity...

beautiful sky over Miri...