Entries this week from the US, the UK, Cengkareng, Pangkalan Jati (the basecamp of teak), Pondok Cabe (the field of chilli), Sedayu and Suvarna. There was also a round at Karawang International – that was overturned by a better card but thanks Shawn for the three entries this week.

Rav and the gang are back from Bali but not yet ready to move away from the seaside courses or the tourist snaps, joined here by Divya (never shy of a snap himself) and Bobby who went back to Sedayu twice this week….and got bitten again twice, although Rav’s 8 shot improvement in rounds showed some lessons were learnt.

From overseas, we had the much awaited grudge match of Neil and Ian in Miami – which fizzled into a 25 point tie (no count back or play off)- no doubt both felt the pressure and a fair amount of sledging during backswings and clutch putts. Santi in Liverpool has been working on a posh version of the scouse accent and on her game (3 or 4 days a week according to hubby), and carded a 28 pointer this week.

Overall 17 scores were entered, with the under 30 pointers consisting of Ian and Neil, Santi, Andy, Steve (and with a sandy par – sorry omitted from first edition), Divya, Emil and Indar. On 31 we had James and Geoff, whispering through the Suvarna landscape like a zephyr, on 32 we had Shawn at PJ, Bobby and Rav at Sedayu, on 36 we had Dougy at PJ and Mark at Cengkers, Michael had a very spicy 41 points at Pondok Cabe, but revenge was sweet with our winner this week, Craig (the stretched version), carding 42 points at Suvarna, after being rolled on the last by Michael at Takara a couple of weeks earlier….now feeling like a plonker writing in the third person.

I’m sure there were many other games and, remember, in the current conditions, we are taking cards from days other than the weekend, so send in all your cards and any photos, and we’ll include your best score and your worst photo. In the spirit of gentlemanly discretion, we will not declare what day you played.

Preparing to Resume Comps

We are working with clubs to make sure our return to normal comps is safe and as enjoyable as ever – we have had to skip a couple of big days for us – the 2000th event and our Birthday Scramble – but that’s nothing given what’s going on. Cengkareng have kindly offered to host our first round back but we cannot confirm the date yet, because of official capacity constraints associated with the courses, so we will wait until everything is clear and return to competition at Cengkareng soon.

To make admin safer and simpler, we ask everyone now to load the MyGolf2U app on your phone and start recording all of the rounds you are playing. When we start comps again, we will be using the app to support our competitions. Adhe will continue to be at the course as our Comp Manager but we don’t want players gathering around her or other members of the committee with scores, so all of these will need to be entered on the app. You can do this after each hole or after the round, if you prefer to keep a hardcopy scorecard as well – and you will need this if you are playing dots (ask Bill). If you have a gifted and enthusiastic playing partner like the Whispering One, they will enter your score for you….best deal. There are some bugs to iron out still but we can only do this if we start using the app live as a basis for our scoring and handicaps. It gives us a few months before the Championships in November to work with it and line it up with our longstanding database of records. At the Championships, we will put it to a vote to confirm whether we adopt it moving forward.

Next Up: Sunday 5th September 2021, Tee Set Global Hybrid Continues

That’s right…..keep the tradition alive by entering your scores and sending in your photos…not long to go before we can return to a weird sort of normal, but this is keeping us going for now, and it’s awesome to be playing golf again.