Glorious weather, seeing off the Fischers and the prospect of a return to the revitalised former spiritual home of the Tee Set saw a bumper turnout of 49 players at Pangkalan Jati. There was one notable absentee who could have brought us up to the magical 50 – but he had an excellent excuse as you will learn later.

The day was a game of two halves as they say in the world of football (soccer for our American friends) … first up, the round itself ….

The Round

Most importantly, welcome back to Stan Cook who hasn’t seen the light of Tee Set day in a number of years. Teamed up with Chipper Barwick and the Eds Benders it would have been an interesting flight to follow, not least as Jack Daniels also joined them all for breakfast beforehand and then the full 18 holes. More than could be said of Chipper who retired early around the 14th due to “the heat”. Guess they don’t have heat in Houston like they have here – or he’s softening up some!

Matt Fairey beat John Suermondt 4 and 3 in match play while Chris Murchison beat Fernando Gaggino 6 and 5 only for them to learn later that they had played out of synch with the draw 😦

In the continued absence of Tuti on extended leave, Mel Meeds took on secretarial duties for the day and did an amazing job considering the size of the group that showed up for the round, with our hero stepping into the breech and coping like a bird dog; we may have an opening for you, Mel.

Sam Westen had another great day shooting a sparkling low gross 77 on yet another course he has never seen before. Peter Reichlmeier with 68 won low net on a count back from Ed Tarog, and this despite shooting a handicap retaining triple bogey on the last hole played.

Graham McGeady and Neil Mullins took the money with an alarmingly low 25 putts apiece while Malcolm McDonald shared first birdie with Johannes Pesch on hole #1. Marni Fisher took money for first par over 30 but then gave half of it back as shared monster putter

Evaldo had the first sandy par on #7 and Don Craig rounded out the prizes by improving on his front 9 by a massive 15 strokes having set himself up with an equally massive 63 on the front 9!!

Fines contributed significantly to Tee Set coffers on the day with Cate and Marni tied for monster putter (40), most strokes to Ziad Khalaf with 12, and skirts to Koen Verheyen, John Suermondt, Keith Miller, Mel Cantarella, Ed Tarog, Peter Collier and Ed Bender Jr. Well done all, we need the money.

Minus a Mel C, unavoidably detained in the changing rooms!

The big turn out on the day was amongst other things to send off Cameron and Marni Fisher who were playing their last game with Tee Set after 3 years of regular Sunday golf. Despite coming from a frigid Canadian winter, Cameron took to life in the Big Durian like a duck to water. His first outing with Tee Set was September 2010 at Sentul Highlands and he scored a gross 103. His last outing on Sunday resulted in a gross 99. Just goes to show how much your game will improve when you play with Tee Set!!

Good luck to Marni and Cameron for the future, it’s been great having you on board.

The BBQ

Absolutely fabulous “do” in the perfect BBQ setting of Mike Garwood’s place in deepest Fatmawati. Mike Garwood, as host, made the ultimate sacrifice and skipped the PJ round to make sure everything was ship shape and Bristol fashion for the early evening barbie and, it has to be said, did a stunning job of the whole thing; well worth him depriving us of that 50th player!!

The main reasons for the Tee Set BBQ were because we hadn’t had on in Heaven knows how long, and to make sure that the Fischers left and Johannes and the Craigs were eased into the departure lounge ready to go in a few weeks time.

Peter Reichlmeir and Graham McGeady did a fine job on the snags and steaks respectively, while Mike himself spent most of his evening selflessly operating the M4 – as Mike’s Magical Margarita Maker is known.

The M4 – with its Master

Thanks also go to Octa for the chicken wings, Santi for her pate and  Dita and Lis for the salad preparation. The rest of us concentrated on getting mildly sozzled and enjoying the fun of a great evening of bullshitting with fellow Tee Setters

Finally, many thanks to Seascape Surveys for sponsoring the absolutely top class steaks, snags and salads.

Given the success of this one, it seems unlikely that we will wait quite as long for the next.

30th Anniversary

Getting close to the time to close the list for those top quality monogrammed 30th Anniversary shirts – so if you haven’t already, do it NOW!!

Next Up

30th June is our brush with those fickle Gods of Golf and, being  the last Sunday of the month, we return to Matoa for the Monthly Medal and a tilt at destiny – and a half million rupiah Slaneys Meats voucher – and anyone who tasted the steaks and snags on Sunday will appreciate the quality that goes with Slaneys’ Meats.

Register here at “Yes I’m playing” as usual if you intend joining on Sunday when green fees will a reasonable (ish) 650,000 including shared buggy or 540,000 if you take Shanks’ pony.

We got the green fees wrong at PJ; they were of course 510,000 walking and 95,000 or something for a shared buggy – the lack of moaning about the extra was much appreciated:-)

See yah Sunday! … Tee Set