A photo that few ever expected to see – Sam Westen wearing the skirt and wig, with friends ..

The Day

Our first event appearance at the fine Senayan course was to be deeply affected by rain, heavy rain before we started, rain as we played and rain after a couple of breaks before it finally stopped a little before halfway, with the stopping coinciding most remarkably with the departure from the course of our thoroughly wet Pawang Hujan, Graham McGready!

Graham was not alone of course, with 9 Tee Setters giving the round up as a bad deal. The 27 who remained were to be rewarded for their fortitude with splendid weather conditions  on the back 9 – and course conditions which demonstrated stunning powers of recovery from fairways that had not long previously seemed more akin to rivers than anything else.

.. the starter gets us away for the second time with the encouragement of the President..

While possessed of a par of 69 as a result of land constraints in the middle of the city which bring about a rather richer diet of par threes than might be preferred, Senayan is a stunning course which actually benefits visually from the many skyscrapers that surround it, though it is best to avoid looking too closely at the river that runs through it. Pretty much all agreed that this should be a regular Tee Set venue – especially if they can sort out their rain issue!

A day of many highlights with several players shooting all time lows including a net 63 from Santi Miller, more skirts than a red wig could sensibly shaken at, a Most Improved of 18, the first time appearance of a skins sideline – and three Newcomers to welcome in Mark Manderson, Sew Cheong Kiat and Vergel Vicencia. A warm Tee Set welcome to you all.

Finally, a little after the prize giving saw some of the most violent rain seen in Jakarta for some time with flash flooding and found a group of Tee Setters “ stuck” in the clubhouse unable to go home. Rather luckily the bar was still open.

The Play

Just aim for the G in SOGO, Santi ..

One for whom the rain might not have existed was Santi Miller who shot her finest ever score with Tee Set with a gross 73 and, with a wide selection of prizes to pick from, chose Low Net with her 35-38-73-10-63, leaving Sam Westen to take Low Gross with his own 73. Well done Santi!!

George Bevege took his usual 100,000 home, this time for his First Birdie on the second, leaving Keith Miller to take home his share of the riches on offer with his Sandy Par on the 12th.

Goetz gets Most Improved with a (nearly!) unbelievable 59-41-18

With much of the the first 9 holes being played in rain, it is hardly surprising that the day saw an unusually high number of players in double figures in the “Most Improved” column and Goetz Ebbeke’s stunning 59-41-100 was not that far away from the all-time-record of 23 set by Shawn Berg in 2008

Leona Jelinkova is making a habit of taking home the 1st Par – HC >=30, securing the prize on her very first hole this week. Well done Leona, but watch out for the handicapper!

Perhaps the unluckiest Tee Setter on the day was Chris Smith who played the best round of his Tee Set career but narrowly missed out in all categories on a day that saw so many people playing well. It is understood that Chris was not too put out as he secured 5 skins in the President of Some Things’ “Skins Sideshow” 🙂

Speaking of unlucky, the Treasurer was grinning from ear to ear at the rich haul of 9 skirts – and their related fines – which was to include the scalp of Sam Westen, who found himself conspired against by a tree which jumped out and sent Sam’s ball hurtling back to him and finish the wrong side of the red tee 🙂 Mike Webb then managed to perform exactly the same trick as Sam on the same hole and was to comment, “I have always wanted to play like Sam – and I finally got my wish!”

Thurman is no newcomer to the Skirt Fraternity but broke new ground by taking 4 shots to get past the ladies tees on hole #11 and may very well  have been rattled by losing his 6 iron in the bushes on his first swing of the day. Another of the day’s cross-dressers was  a Craig Metters free of the clutches of the wife on holiday in Perth and attempting two games in one weekend only to be thwarted by the weather. A skirt on the first swing didn’t help his mood.

Finally, player results can be found here while many more photos are in our photo archive here.

Next Up

After the glamour and glitz of some of our recent events, it is back to the bread and butter stuff again at Pondok Cabe. We have extolled the virtues of this solid second division course on a number of previous occasions so we won’t bore you again, suffice to say that green fees etc will be a less than wallet thinning 375,000 roops walking on a walking friendly course, or 450,000 if you share a cart; first tee off from 1 and 10 at 11:30, or maybe a little earlier.

Sign up on “Yes, I’m playing!” as usual.

See yah Sunday!! …. Tee Set

PS Having recently spent rather more time in a particular Matoa greenside bunker than might be considered sensible, regular Tee Setter and golf coach Ken Runyon’s piece in the latest JakartaNOW! was of more than usual interest to your scribe – and may very well be to you.