The Day
Sunday saw 40 Tee Setters head out under perfect blue skies to Padang Modern Golf for the August Monthly medal and what was meant to be the final round of Eclectic Cycle VI with an exciting finish in store as the top 4 players were tied heading into Sunday’s round. Although primed for a later than usual start at 12.30pm, there was some consternation when we were informed that the start would be delayed further due to the late finish of the morning monthly medal round.
As time ticked on a few Tee Setters decided the uncertainty of finishing was not worth waiting for and departed leaving 37 players who were keen to play if at all possible. With Brenda and Wina supporting President Roger Finnie and with a start time of 1.30pm looming, some quick negotiations with the Management led to a Rp250,000 discount on the Green Fees to cover the risks of not finishing and 10 free jugs of beer to keep everybody happy before and after the round.
An executive decision was made to postpone the last round of the Eclectic until September’s Monthly medal round and so on the thrice revised tee off time of 1.30pm we headed to ensure Tee Set’s record of never missing a weekend in 34 years was maintained. With everyone keeping up a good pace, we all managed to finish our rounds as dark fell although some of the carts required a push to get them back to the club house.
The longer wait gave us the opportunity to welcome father and daughter newcomers, Scotty and Kayla Graham as well as Steve Moruzzi.
We also had some impressive welcome backs with Putu Kamayana after 166 weeks and Erik Milfors after 82 weeks heading the list of the longest gap between events this week. We hope to see you back before 2020!
Needless to say, the prize giving was held quite late but with the free beers quenching everyone’s thirst we recognized the good and not so good play of the day and gave Brenda and Wina a rousing cheer for their earlier efforts in negotiating the discount on the day.
The Play
As usual, Modern proved a good test of golf for the Monthly medal with only 6 players breaking or achieving their handicaps but this was offset by an equally low number of fines for the day. Most strokes went to Richard Green for his 11 on one hole, just pipping 3 others who had 10 strokes. Only one skirt was recorded with new comer Scotty Graham getting the choice of the tee set dress up outfit much to the amusement of Kayla. Fellow new-comer Steve Moruzzi got himself into the prizes for First Sandy on hole 8 and after 6 months away, Nick Thomas snared First Par for handicaps >= 30 for his effort on hole 4.
First Birdie went to Andrew Waite for his 3rd hole effort and Efsi Hayati came home and impressive 10 shots better to take home the prize for Most Improved.
Low Net A went to Ryan Shepherd for his net 69 and he was joined by Low Net B winner Matthew Cherrett (71) on a count-back from Mike Webb and Low Net C winner John Suermondt (73). Taking advantage of Ryan already winning a prize, Roger Finnie was awarded Low Gross for his 81 strokes.
No putting awards today as everyone had a good day on the greens and joint Low Putters Roger and Ryan had already taken home other prizes. This left us with the Monthly Medal prizes for Best Stableford, Nearest the Pin and Long Drive which turned out to be a short presentation with Tony Howarth taking home all three prizes after having his best round with Tee Set recording 43 points on the day.
Congratulations to Tony who in addition to getting his name engraved on the shield, took home the Monthly Medal and a Rp1,000,000 voucher from sponsors Grand Slam Golf. Photos of the day can be found here and the detailed player results here.
Next-Up: Senayan National Golf Club 12PM
This week is a holiday week-end which is a chance for us all to enjoy macet-free inner city Jakarta. Senayan is a great walking course and one which forces us to use every club in the bag; the greens are in usually good and the facilities top notch. Green fees are a reasonable Rp800,000 (walking) but carts are a steep Rp500,000 per cart and beer prices are even steeper so be warned!
There are also Senayan local rules (power lines and flower beds – some blue stakes free drop, some no stakes penalty drop) so read the score card.
Given that we will be starting off holes 1 and 10, and the front nine is par 36 and the back nine is 33, Most Improved will be calculated as if everybody was starting off hole 1…but make sure you mark your starting hole at the top of your card as other prizes will be awarded as usual
Please register here as usual.
the Eclectic. With 4 players tied at the top and a further 6 players within 6 strokes, there is all to play for in succeeding Craig Edwards as the Eclectic champion from Cycle V. For those in contention, you can check out your opportunities to improve your 
I am pleased to announce that Bill Lloyd has heeded the call and will join the Tee Set Committee as a VP with immediate effect. Bill has been a Tee Set member since 2009 and in addition to bringing a lively presence every time he joins us, he and his company Asian Tigers have been staunch supporters of Tee Set over the last few years. Welcome Bill and I look forward to working with you.
Next week-end sees the return match of the Battle Royale Cup where Tee Set will seek to win the trophy presented to Par 5 Club following their success at the inaugural event in Bali last year. President Roger Finnie will be leading the Tee Set team over 54 holes of match play at the ever popular Cengkareng Golf course. The match will be played on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August followed by a trophy presentation BBQ on Sunday evening. Roger has reached out to several potential team members already and anyone interested to play please send an email to him via rogerfinnie@yahoo.com.
The Greg Norman designed Riverside is always one of the most interesting challenges on the Tee Set schedule with the Shark’s trademark optical illusions regularly fooling the unwary.
Also collecting a bottle of wine for their individual efforts were Ron White for his Nearest the Pin effort on hole 4 of 2.40m while Scott Schauer launched a huge 285m drive on hole 9 to take Long Drive – not with the planned 1980’s driver unfortunately as a small hiccup in arrangements saw that left in the bag at home. Oh dear.
For the team prizes there were many good scores with 19 of the 22 teams finishing with a net score under 60. The battle for 3rd place was a close one with 7 teams separated by a single stroke.
The overall winners however were to be team EVI (no idea) comprised of Al Livingston, Kim Pham, Craig Binks and Most Drives winner Michael Seabrook. In addition to the day’s not insignificant bragging rights, they each took home a bottle of wine and 2 sleeves of balls.
Tee Set celebrates its birthday every year. As you pick yourself off the ground stunned by the depth of the insight that goes behind that statement, our 34th birthday is of course on Sunday and is most definitely not to be missed – if only for your chance to discover just what a delight eating a slice of the magnificent green themed 
Welcome Backs were all post-holiday returnees with Joseph D’-Cruz especially happy to tell his playing partners all about his wonderful trip to St. Andrews during a blissful summer sojourn.
The later tee off time did however enable Ken Runyon to appear to be perfectly on time as he cut his arrival very fine even for the later start and indeed give Kathy Scalabre some additional time to try and find her favourite caddie despite the vaguest of descriptions.
Modern again proved a good test of golf for the Monthly Medal with just 5 players breaking net par and she was once again to cough up a healthy return of 6 Skirts with perennial skirt winner, Immediate Past President Pascal “Pastis” Bekaert, being joined by Mel Cantarella, Stefan Thiele, newcomer Joe Feld and 2 unexpected guests: big hitting long drive favourite, Tony Howarth and the consistently inconsistent Fernando Gaggino.
Kathy Scalabre showed that owning only 2 clubs and having to rent the balance of her set pending her shipment arrival was no hindrance sharing Most Improved with her cart partner, Mike Webb, in shaving 7 strokes coming home after their front nine efforts.
Divya continued to show the strong form displayed since having a new club fitting in picking up Low Net A Grade with a net 71, when he was joined in the prize giving photo by Low Net Grade B winner Karel Horak (net 71.) Low Net Grade C was incorrectly awarded due to our putting in an incorrect handicap – this will be corrected in the fullness.
“Beware the injured golfer” as the saying goes so there was little doubt that Jaroslav Gaisler would take home the Monthly Medal and the Grand Slam Golf Rp1 juta voucher having spent the morning trying to play down his chances due to a supposedly “bad back”.
