The Long and Short of it

10th November 2007 was the day when in-camp training personnel can leave Singapore to play a round of golf in Batam! High key training, low key slackness. Sounds like a good deal for them. I had to defer that particular ICT, but that's another story altogether. On to Tering Bay!

Different peeps, different experience

This time, instead of the usual trio of Josh, SW and me, it was the foursome of Richard, Law, SW, and me. I was told that Richard can hit in the 70s and 80s, so I was really looking forward to how it can be done, live in person.

Well, Richard tried his best, but didn't hit anything near the 70s and 80s that I know he can achieve, but he showed us a mean game of precise putting. Landing on the green to him means 2 putts. 3 is pretty rare, and 4-putting never happened if I remembered correctly. And because of this, it really kept his score relatively low.

For Mr Law, it was his first game on an actual golf course. Playing on the Mickey Mouse Mandai 9-hole course don't count. Tering Bay is never a good place to break his virginity as the fairways are narrow, and the greens are kinda small to aim at. Nevertheless, he played relatively well except for the last few holes, where I think tiredness got the better of him. Still, good game for a virgin!

As for SW and I, we have the usual problems loh. SW couldn't keep his game consistent (although it's much better nowadays), and my short game sucked big time.

Trickle-down effect

The showers at Tering Bay really sucked this time round. After a golf game, nothing beats a nice hot shower. But due to some central Batam plumbing problem, there was no water pressure at all! That sucked big time. Lunch at the clubhouse was not too bad, though I couldn't say the same for Law's localized version of Tempura. Note to self: always order local stuff like Nasi Goreng when in Batam.

Other than that, as usual, great company! Richard, if you are reading this, do take us to Malaysia in your new Odyssey next time yeah?

Scores:

Bangkok, Land of Smiles and Friendly Golf Courses

To all of you who bothered to spend a part of your existence to read my golf blog, I'm really sorry for taking such a long time to submit a new post. I've just started my new job not too long ago, coupled with SW not passing me his score cards and a little laziness, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to write something on our Bangkok golf trip. But, here it is!

Accessibility is a real plus

Being in Bangkok, where it is really a city instead of some tourist town like Phuket, taxis to the golf course are quite plentiful, and cheap too. The typical cab fare from the city to the suburbs - where the golf courses are - is around 150-200 THB. A real steal compared to the outrageous 300 THB, 5 min tuk-tuk rides in Phuket. After the game, you can get the reception to help you call or flag a cab down, which we did after the first game. Although we were taken for a ride, the fare didn't exceed 250 THB if I can remember correctly.

Chicken talking to the duck

As expected, the service staff at both golf courses we visited weren't masters of the English language. We initially had a hard time communicating to our caddies, but they did use some innovative ways to tell us where to aim, and where to putt. For example, while putting, my caddy created an OK sign, with the "O" signifying the hole. She'll then point where I should aim. Tipping wise, we gave 200 THB each.

Well-maintained courses

In my opinion, the standards of the fairways and greens are immaculate. Of course, they aren't like the Tanjong and Serapong course at Sentosa Golf Club, but the 2 Bangkok courses are much better than the ones in Batam. Difficulty-wise, well, looking at our scorecards, they aren't the easiest ones around. Fairways were quite narrow especially at Krungthep, and there were little greens to aim at.

Well, that's it for Bangkok. I really liked the golf courses. As for Bangkok itself, I do find it a bit too haphazard for my liking. Perhaps I'll visit BKK again and see it from another perspective.

Score cards (totally legit, as recorded by our caddies):