The Weekend

Take 26 players, 1 secretary, 12 partners & 7 kids, add golf, food and booze, put over a low heat and stir gently for 36 hours. Works every time.

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley (R. Burns, To a Mouse, 1786)

And the Bard spoke the truth then as he did so often of the human condition, however, the Tee Set Traffic Planning and Macet sub-committee surely got it right this Ramadan weekend with the lion that is the Bogor-Sukabumi road turning into nothing but a mouse as everybody reported journey times of less than 90 minutes in each direction, some far less. Happiness after some of the horror stories we had all heard.

Bush and Bushlette!

The two-day event is of course something intended to allow committed Tee Setters to reward their Significant Others with something other than the kitchen sink to look at on a Sunday – while getting a chance to get a couple of rounds in as a little reward for themselves. Win-win they call it.

A golfing weekend always offers lots more opportunities for getting to know people than your average Tee Set event so, just in case you didn’t quite catch the name of that new friend, here are photos of all who participated in the golf over the weekend.

Weather conditions on the Saturday were perfect for golf until a bit of a light splash at the end before a few beers and the rush back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Golf? … you gotta be kidding ..

The rain continued for an unseasonably long time and the best laid scheme of having the BBQ out on the poolside terrace went rather “a-gley” – but there was a Plan B and we instead repaired to the perfectly acceptable dining room nearby.

With his FD hat on, the immediate Past President of Most Things had decided that accumulated Tee Set Funds  since the last Tee Set Championship were sufficiently healthy to throw in a dozen or more bottles of Australia’s finest to the festivities, after which his oily rags were to successfully fend off demands from local management for 150,000 roops a bottle for corkage. Well done, them.

The majority of the group played both Saturday and Sunday and overnighted in the very quaint but comfortable Lido Lakes Resort. Of course for a Tee Set group to overnight anywhere means a rollicking party will materialize, and that’s exactly what happened. A B-B-Q dinner put on by the hotel, sausage and cheeses from Joe and Keith, pate from Santi, Malibu rum and Chivas Scotch whisky from James, and 12 bottles of Wolf Blass red from the Tee Set stash.

The makings therefore of a great evening and fuzzy heads to contend with in the morning. Last man standing at around 2am was Shane who in fact was the first man up in the morning. Mr Duracell Rawles was unstoppable.

Bill decides he has heard enough about ice cream

Ken Runyon then took it upon himself to announce that chocolate ice cream was now available in the corner and, not just once but several times.

This went down nearly as well as the ice-cream and led to Ken’s immediate appointment as chairman of the Tee Set Ice Cream sub-committee and a gagging by Bill Lloyd.

Suitably refreshed, the masses then enjoyed some very loud and impressive fireworks courtesy of the McGeadys. Many thanks to them.

While most went to refresh their exhausted bodies in the hotel’s comfortable beds, the hard-core carried on partying, world cup watching and playing some very inferior pool.

For any golfing weekend away a significant amount of planning is required and we thank Octa for stepping up to the plate to take on all the hotel bookings and food arrangements. Great job.

Of course distribution of information is critical for any event and Tee Set web master made sure all were well informed of developments as they happened.

All agreed that the event was one worthy of repeat but sadly the course will be closed early August for a two-year period for renovations and to add an extra 18 holes. Suspect the developers are eyeing the Asian tourist market but they had better understand that a good access road is paramount to success for a recreational facility located over 70km out of Jakarta. Not every weekend is blessed with light Ramadan traffic.

The committee that never sleeps are eyeing up a number of opportunities for the next Tee Set weekend, including Bintan Island and indeed Rancamaya where a new hotel is well under construction.

Finally getting around to the golf itself, the Lido course overall was in rather good and very green condition considering it is scheduled to shut down for two years for those renovations and development.

The greens though were another thing, however, reluctant to hold a ball, fast as hell, undulating in all sorts of directions – and pretty bumpy to add to the challenge. Thuggish is the adjective that comes to mind. The only other negative was the massed ranks of juvenile delinquents and kleptocrats  ready to steal your ball at a moment’s notice for anyone foolish enough to venture into the badlands known as the rough at Lido. We guess the management has already sacked all the SATPAMS apart from the one the front gate.

A low putts wining total of 30 and average putts taken of 36 tells you something – as does an amazing number of four putts (allegedly a five putt too but we have been unable to attach a name to it).

The Play

Lido Lakes in the shadow of Gunung Selak and just off the broken down road to Sukabumi is slightly higher in elevation then Bogor but not quite as high as Bandung.

The weather was at best sunny and balmy and at worst overcast and balmy, both perfect golf playing conditions. A deserted course as Ramadan moves into full swing meant very little waiting other than some rather drawn out ball searches.

A quality course with a slope rating of 137 meant challenges for both the good and average golfers, but there was still width enough on the fairways to allow the higher handicappers to keep the ball in play a majority of the time. The grass off the fairways was described by some as a grass crop in contrast to the usual term, rough. Very handy to have those young local boys acting as ball spotters when a miss directed shot disappeared into the rough. 5,000 roops generally got you a ball sitting up very nicely in the rough 🙂

Top honours to Jaco Zaayman for finally coming good and winning top honours with a Low Net of 75, helped by a couple of absences it has to be said!

Certainly Ken Runyon’s story of his road to redemption from an embarrassing 98 on the Saturday to an impressive second day 86 won him Low Gross and most improved overall is worth relating. Ken’s fascination with that chocolate ice cream also earned him a new nickname, Mr Whippy.

Mike Webb played well enough on Saturday to earn another crack at bettering his score on Sunday but called force majeur since it was his birthday. It will be hard to live that one down Mike.

The minor prizes were all well deserved on a tough course – and with the lucky winners treated to a supplement of Tee Set wine left over from the previous evening

6 players sharing most stokes on a hole and four skirts rewarded the Treasurer for his largesse on the wine front over the weekend though supplemented only by an unexpectedly small number of skirts.

Fuller, player by player results are here, while a huge bunch of photos of a fantastic weekend can be found on the Tee Set Gallery.

2014 Tee Set Matchplay

That old fox, Geoff Thwaites was too foxy for the foxy Santi Miller by 3 and 2 while the battle hardened 4 and 3 James Ross was too much for a Jan Janda playing his first Tee Set since early March.

Next up

Contrary to what you might have imagined by looking at the schedule, our next round is on Sunday 13th July when we will visit that lovely and challenging Greg Norman designed Jakarta top 5 course, Riverside, off the Jagorawi Tol. The schedule will be updated; just not yet.

If the traffic conditions this weekend are any guide then a swift journey from the city is guaranteed; there and back.

We will have a very respectable 11:00 tee time from 1 and 10 when green fees will be a rather modest 695,000 roops (corrected) for this top class course; register here as usual to secure your place.

See ya at Riverside!! … Tee Set

Thanks Lido, we miss you already ….