Due to the heavy mist it is possible that first timers have not seen the glory that is Mt. Salak … trust us, it is there!

The days

A meal in two parts at Rancamaya for one of the most enjoyable week-ends on our golfing calendar, with some excellent social golf on the Saturday afternoon followed by  a great social evening at the Tee Set sponsored BBQ Saturday as the appetiser – and a main course of a relaxing start to Sunday having slept over at the excellent R Hotel Saturday night and then the annual D.O.G.S. versus Tee Set matchplay as well as our regular Tee Set Sunday.

As is now traditional, most of our number took advantage of the attractive R Hotel prices negotiated by President Pascal to make a weekend of it – and the field swelled by “day trippers” on the Sunday.

For those making a weekend of it, Saturday morning saw us gathering at the clubhouse from around 10am with our groups being sent out in fine sunshine from around 11.30am. The course was, as ever, in good condition with the greens being much faster than some we have seen in recent weeks – albeit a little bumpy as Ramadan is when course management like to undertake their maintenance programs.

After a couple of drinks in the clubhouse to share war-stories about the round, and catch-up with friends, we changed for the BBQ in the club-house when we were joined by the later arrivals.

Something of a hiccup in the food service was more than offset by the enjoyment of the many and varied beverages brought from our own cellars and the music provided by our President. Mindful of the important exertions lying ahead in the morning, the last party goers headed to bed around 12.30am, and plenty of time to sleep the sleep of the just.

Somewhat remarkably, we were to have NO Newcomers on the Sunday, however we did have one spectacular three digit Welcome Back in Dan Brod at 186 weeks, with Dan celebrating his return with “the round of my life”. As you are back in Jakarta Dan, we expect to see you rather more often now!!

As we had no Newcomers we were not to reduce our stock of shirts. This reminds us to remind you that while we have no annual membership fee and charge nothing for the significant effort put in by your unpaid organising committee, we do expect you to have a 2017 shirt. Please buy one if you don’t have one.

The course was pretty quiet on the Sunday when around 60 D.O.G.S. and Tee Setters took advantage and headed out ahead of the scheduled noon start and everyone got round in five hours I believe.

Unfortunately a heavy mist was to obscure the iconic Gunung Salak throughout Sunday but it was certainly hot enough the heat was to taper off nicely to leave us with perfect golfing conditions over the last 6 holes or so.

Once again most of the caddies were fasting but did a fabulous job, how lucky we are.

For the day trippers, an hour to Rancamaya and an hour back to South Jakarta today was of course the result of your committee’s long and detailed planning in a smoke filled back room of the Star Deli in January. Well done them.

The play

With a number of Tee Setters also being D.O.G.S. members we had 41 players registered under the Tee Set scoring system. Top honours for the day went to Dan Brod, who was also our biggest Welcome Back after 188 weeks, and for what he described as “the best round of his life”, shooting 85 off the stick and a winning Low Net 62 in B Grade.

Richard Mau continued his recent fine play with a Low Gross of 78 but took the most prestigious Low Net A Grade prize, when he was joined in the winners circle by joint Low Net C Grade winners, Tom Alcedo and Mel Cantarella.

Taking advantage of the 1 prize rule, Roger Finnie was awarded Low Gross for his 81 off the stick and Stuart Wigley First Birdie for his effort on number 3.

Mick Dodsworth had a sandy par on hole number 1, Lis Wymer continued her winning ways with First Par for handicaps 30 and above for her Par on hole 3 while both Don Duttlinger and Paul Ang enjoyed much better back nines, shaving 10 shots off their front nine efforts.

After a few weeks where the monkey has stayed asleep in the bag, the greens at Rancamaya were able to catch a few people out and Jonathan Quek took Monster Putter after needing 42 blows with the flat stick.

Most strokes was a close affair with Kathy Scalabre getting her nose ahead of the pack on 10 with an 11 stroke effort.

Not to be outdone by the absence of our current President, former Presidents Craig Ewers and Ric Wymer did the honourable thing and were joined by Mike Webb in supplementing Tee Set funds with some well deserved skirts.

D.O.G.S. versus Tee Set

D.O.G.S captain and more than occasional Tee Setter Mark Johnson receives the trophy from Ric

The 3^rd edition of this matchplay format event was played in parallel to our own the regular activities, with 24 players from each side pairing up to represent their respective societies.

A series of close matches saw 4 matches halved but with D.O.G.S. just getting the better of those matches which had a result to retain the trophy with a 7-5.

Congratulations to Mark Johnson and his team who will finally be able to get their hands on the trophy once Tee Set Captain Ric Wymer gets it engraved!

The inspiration for this event has always been Juergen Degert who had close and long time associations with both Tee Set and D.O.G.S. and who sadly passed away just after this event in 2016.

During prize giving, Ric Wymer announced that the trophy will be named in memory of Juergen in order to mark the wholehearted appreciation of both teams for his efforts in developing this successful weekend.

2017 Tee Set Matchplay

Just one match-play completed with Rasmus Kilde and Jeff Landau finding themselves in the unusual position of being both playing partners in the D.O.G.S. matchplay AND opponents in the Tee Set knock-out matchplay.

We are not sure how this affected their play but it was reported that Rasmus prevailed in the end!

Tee Set Presidency

It is with great regret that we have to advise that, for personal reasons, Pascal Bekaert has resigned as President of Tee Set. Since joining Tee Set in 2012, Pascal has been greatly involved in both the playing and committee side of Tee Set. Pascal’s energy and contributions as President, not least in organising this weekend’s Rancamaya fun virtually solo, will be greatly missed by the Committee.

Happily Pascal expects to continue playing with us into the future, though a little less regularly than of yore perhaps, so we can continue to enjoy his friendship and of course, share the odd “pastis”. Or perhaps two.

Pending a decision on who will succeed Pascal, the rest of the committee will bumble on as before.

Lost and Found @ Rancamaya

1 pair of sunglasses left alone and unloved in the clubhouse after it was all over. Tell us the brand and they are yours!

Next up

Continuing our spectacular run at the great Jags Tol courses as we take maximum advantage of the quiet Ramadan month traffic, we visit the spectacular Rainbow Hills next Sunday; if you haven’t played it before then you are in for a treat, if you have then you will not want to miss more of the glory.

Green fees of 956,000 including shared card and with a noon tee-off, sign up here for the fun.

With the scheduled Interleague programme falling apart and the Tee Set v Tee Set Too Interleague match outstanding we intend if possible to play that in the background to our regular stuff at Rainbow. You may get a call from Tee Set Interleague Boss, Roger.

Permata Sentul, Bogor Raya, Rancamaya and Rainbow Hills on the bounce – WOW. Make that quadruple WOW.

See yah at the end of the Rainbow,  after we wake up where the clouds are far behind us …. Tee Set