Our first trip to Gading Raya for a while. The men are still hanging around the ladies locker rooms and the restaurant staff are completely oblivious to your existence. These are the only 2 nasty things I have to say about the club because once you walk out the door it is a course we all love it. The had us down for a 12.35 tee off but golfers were already making their way to the tee box as I arrived at high noon. A quick juggling of flights and we were off to Tee Box 10. Roger was a bit slower as his caddy had deviously hidden his clubs at Tee Box 1. The day was hot, like birds falling out of the sky hot, and the earlier start led to nothing but standing in the blazing heat a bit longer.

Cloudless skies and barely a breeze, meant long balls with a lot of roll, myself and Claudio were banging em long and Patrick was keeping in touch with a handy second shot. The greens were a bit slower than the previous day’s outing at Cabe and a few were left short, which gave rise to a few Presidential outbursts. Nothing too blue as I have the responsibility of office upon my shoulders. Pars were frequent but not as frequent as bogeys. The renovation at the kiosks left a limited offering as me and the boys were looking forward to a Magnum on the 15h, alas nothing. Better get on with the golf. The missing Magnum led to a nice slice into the mansion being built on the 16th. Now this would be akin to teeing up on the edge of the Grand Canyon and hitting a tourist bus as it entered the carpark. At this point another Presidential speech was produced.

A long wait on the swing saw the group struggle getting to the green as caddies searched for balls in the creek and building site. The back nine flowed fast and friendly, waves were exchanged with fellow TeeSetters spread across the course. Then came the final hole, Presidential tensions were high after making a meal of the previous hole, and who do we have coming down the 18th par 5 but Alessandro, Roberto, Diarmuid and Jude. The heckling begins, 4 more years, hit it into the bunker etc. Patrick responds to the challenge with his best drive of the day, Claudio does what he is told and hits it into the bunker. The President goes long, not wide just long way past Patrick and has plenty of time to return the heckle as he watches his tormentors hack and chop their way up the 18th. Nice shot out of the bunker sees Claudio in good position for a potential bogey. What comes next was something special as Patrick strikes a nice mid height iron into the green, I watch as it starts it’s procession across the green moving closer to the pin, curving nicely towards the pin, climbing the hill towards the pin. Will it make it? You betcha. Eagle! Excitement quite intense.

Back to the clubhouse feeling jubilant and blasting the hecklers as they 3 putt the last. There’s Bilal I wave we catch. How’d you go? So so but I managed an eagle on the first. TeeSet Bookend GAding Raya with an Eagle at the 1st and another on the 18th.To the winners

Best Stableford to Tom Terrific with a marvelous 45 points, off the blues. The prize money disappeared quicker than a bolt of lightening.

Low gross to the Axel 76. Cracking round

Hitoshi with 25 putts takes the money, proving that traveling 15kms from home to sleep in a car outside a pub is good for your game. We need to see more of it.

On a day when birdies were many there had to be a first and it went to Manoj. well done.

well if we could see his pearly whites we could say he was grinning like a Cheshire cat but alas. What we can say is he nailed an eagle. As did Bilal who unfortunately was not here to share the glory. Well done to both of you from all at TeeSet.

It was a great day with all but one golfer breaking 100 probably a first for the squad. Fast play makes for a good day. Standing over a putt and waiting for the earth to tilt of its axis does not constitute fast play. Twelve practise swings and staring down a fairway on your second shot does not bring the green closer. It is important that you are aware that others are playing and slow play is appreciated by none. If you think you have some of the tendencies described above, speed your bloody game up. We’re here for a good time not a long time.

Cengkerang this Saturday

With Christmas Eve falling on Sunday we have moved our regular game to Saturday to enable everyone celebrating Christmas to have the day free for last minute shopping, wrapping presents, parties etc… and for everyone else, the opportunity of a relaxing day.

The game is posted on mygolf2u and is at Cengkareng with our usual 12pm-ish start. In a twist from the usual prizes we will be blind-drawing 2-player teams and recognizing the best 3 teams on a better-ball stableford scoring basis. There is no need to be paired with your partner of the day as the scoring template will take care of this, so if you have any pairings requests, please let Roger know directly as Adhe is having a well-deserved break this weekend.

We will also recognize individual winners for Low Gross and Best Stableford Points. In parallel, we will also run a skins game which is optional for an additional Rp50k per head… just let Roger know you are joining when you pay your regular game fee and we will do the rest.

Merry Xmas folks have a great break and we hope to see you on the course

Cheers

Mr. President

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