Royale Jakarta, Sunday 14th July

The Day

Two reasons for our presence at this fine course today, the first being Wina who arranged the booking rather late in the day and on pretty advantageous terms, the second being Ramadan, when the challenge of playing golf for four or five hours in hot sunshine while fasting is a bridge too far for many of the local golfers. Tee Set’s ability to deliver 30-40 golfers at this time of year can make us an attractive proposition even for the very best of courses.

That said, Tee Set week 33 at the famous Royale Jakarta course was in fact planned more than 5 months ago, however, in the lead up to the event, an “unexpected” snafu struck with the course management deciding that the quoted rate was too cheap and unilaterally cancelled our booking.

Not wanting to disappoint the troops, another very attractive venue was chosen. As is the tradition during fasting month, the out of town venue of Lido Lakes was booked since it was expected the traffic would be light. Ongoing road works creating massive traffic jams snookered this plan at the midnight hour however. It was then that master negotiator Wina stepped in to lobby the Royale Jakarta management one more time to achieve a compromise between price and player numbers. So the circle was finally squared and 35 players came out of the woodwork to sign up and play. A relatively happy ending; many thanks, Wina.

Amongst the welcome back players on a great day of golf were Dan Brod who returned to Jakarta from KL especially for the event, Manoj Mishra who managed to fob his kids off to the wife for the day, and Eric Milfors coming out to play his annual Tee Set event; great to see them all

New players to welcome were Graeme and Susanty Bruce, Mike Crumin, and Colin Mortimer. Graeme, Susanty and Mike found themselves at the wrong end of some of the awards but all vowed to return soon to prove the golfing gods are not always against them.

You might have read the comment from Tee Setter Mark Johnson after the round which was “You may want to rethink blue tees at Royale, especially when it’s wet – its very long even for big hitters, there is no run at all and raised greens (predominant) – for 98 percent of golfers white is still long and a challenge”

After the shortest Tee Set committee meeting on record, and in the bar immediately afterwards Mark will be happy to learn, it was decided that the next time we are lucky enough to play Royale, then we will indeed be off the whites – and that lift, clean and cheat will apply if it has rained in the previous month or so. Such a policy might also increase the attractiveness of Jagorawi for many, even though they have a unique teebox colouring scheme that might cloud the issue for some.

The Play

After a mini “skirt drought” the last couple of weeks, the smile was again back on the treasurer’s face with Craig Binks, Ben Kidd, Graeme Bruce, Dan Brod, Mel Cantarella, Mike Webb and Mike Crumlin all being caught short of the ladies tee box.

Sylvia Tesche, fresh from a couple of Brenden Green golf lessons, put her new swing to the test and managed to get her money back by taking the first par for over 30 handicappers. Something about more cocking of the wrists was overheard in conversation.

Sam Westen got his money back for Low Putts with just 26 swings of the blade, though the major honours eluded him this week as Chris Murchison was on fire, carding two birdies and 11 pars on his way to a Low Gross of 74. Chris may have been trying to impress the Interleague captain who was playing in the same group if so then he succeeded, Dan Brod was nudged out on a count back for Low Net by the acting President of everything.

James Young wanted his golf bad luck tale mentioned. He hit one of his rare good shots for the day only to see it bounce back 50 yards after hitting flush a fairway marker pole no more then 3cm in diameter. Could have been worse James, might have bounced sideways into the water.

For full results please click here……….

Interleague

In case you haven’t read the report of our glorious victory over the Cloggies last time out you will find it here. The next challenge for our boys and girls is to continue their climb up the table with a victory against bottom of the table Jakarta Loose Impediments.

Next week is the next round of Interleague at Jagorawi with a 09:30 start. Those believing their form is good enough to take on the Loose Impediments team please drop the Acting President of Everything a line with your availability. After a good win against the Cloggies last month we are certainly looking to keep the momentum going.

Next Week

You can’t say that you are not being spoiled rotten by Tee Set; after Royale Jakarta this week, we bring you Rainbow Hills another absolutely top class venue and at another rather reasonable weekend price of 725,000 roops including shared cart!

Once again a little later than we prefer at 11:45, however, that is part of the price to pay for another magical course; if you haven’t played Rainbow before then we know that you are in for a treat, and if you have played it before then you know you are in for a treat.

See you soon, Tee Set

PS proof positive that we can be invited anywhere twice; the second time to apologise 🙂