The Royal Lake Club organised a 3-day golf tour of Pekanbaru and having heard so much of good reports about the golf course there, pakdokter had signed up with 39 others for probably the 'biggest ever overseas tour contingent' of the Royal lake Club golf section!
The club organised a bus to ferry us to the LCCT Airport but the crowd at the check-in counter was a 'stressful' start to the trip. The queues were long and slow and 'disputes' over 'oversized baggage' booking thought to be for the golf bag further delayed the registration. So some golfers had to forgo what they paid for the 'oversized baggage' and still fork out the RM50 for their golf set. The introduction of 'self electronic check-in kiosk' which many of us were not aware of explained why at least 3 or 4 counters had very short queues.....while the usual check-in counters had long and slow queues which tested our patience....
And arrival at Pekanbaru was another 'nightmare'.....
The airport was small and the distance from the baggage carousel and the immigration counters was probably about 10 feet at the most. So just imagine the risk of a 'stampede' that pakdokter and many 'more senior gentlemen' of the club had to go through....
The 'Grand Elite' Hotel was a pleasant comfort - big spacious room but some of which unfortunately were next to the Karaoke Club which blasted hopeless singing by 'Idol' wannabees...
The "Labersa Golf and Country Club" is a 27-hole golf course developed by a rich family of 8-brothers from Medan ( Labersa is a short form for ' lapan bersaudara'). It is a relatively new course and the Ozzie course supritendant has managed to keep the course in immaculate form. And the 'passionate golfing 8 brother-owners' also ensured the tip-top state of the course....
We played the Plantation and the Hill Nines on the first day. Pakdokters flight consisted of Datuk Tan Chee Sing, Tuan Haji Jayos Prawiro and RSGC buddy pakZahardin. Datuk Tan played to handicap 17, Hj Jayos 18, pakZahardin 22 and pakdokter 24. Datuk Tan is an accomplished golfer - his years of developing several golf courses in Malaysia ( Berjaya Hills, Berjaya Tioman etc) and his own skill at golf put him way ahead of us. If we had played a 'cut-throat' game against each other, the three of us would definitely have paid for Datuk and Datin Tan's holidays!
Datuk Tan generously offerred to play a partnership game, with the partnership being rotated after every 6 holes to give everyone a fairer chance of winning ( or losing!)...
Pakdokter partnered Hj Jayos for the 1st six gholes and lost 4 balls to the other pair. Pakdokter partnered pakZahardin next and was 'dommy' one at the 5th hole and managed to square the game at the sixth and win the 'dommy'. Pakdokter thought the third six would be easy meat as Datuk Tan was in 'great' form. But pakZahardin and Hj Jayos came back strongly and squared us in every hole till the end. Pakzahardin was the biggest winner with Datuk Tan coming in a close second. Unfortunately for pakdokter and Hj Jayos, were were the part sponsor of the lunch for that day. Half the winnings were put out for lunch and the rest were settled by the losers....
Datuk Tan was the overall winner for the day. He played 4-under with 40 stableford points. This was Datuk Tan's 4th consecutive wins over the last 4 club games....His handicap was reduced by 2 immediately.....
Pakdokter only managed to score 52/53, quite the usual score for pakdokter. Pakdokter's drives have improved considerably since returning from Italy but this course punished pakdokter at the green. The green speed was easily 10 by pakdokter's assessment but the 'golf expert' of the Royal Lake Club, Datuk Tan, said that it was playing to 11 or 12......
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