The Day
Padang Golf Modern once more provided a great day for the 41 Tee Setters who showed up for what early on looked like might be a rainy day, but turned out quite nice, and allowed quick play so we were all done with the ceremony just before sunset.
Copious amounts of the President’s Pastis were consumed before, during (as shown above by improvised mixologist Torben), and after the game by many, for once drying up his reserves.
We had 2 Newcomers this week: Paul Hang and Yap Chor Hian, to whom we wish a warm Tee Set welcome.
We also had a few Welcome Backs, but really only one worth mentioning, the return of Tee Set ex-President Peter Reichlmeier, who now lives in Singapore, after 43 weeks, but promised to come and visit us more often.
The Play
Mark Johnson showed that his earlier practice rounds at Modern this week gave him a mastery of the course by winning Low Net A Grade for his net 68. Andrew Waite won Low Net B Grade also with 68, in big part due to his splendid back nine where he finally started hitting his drives straight for a 38 off the stick. While President Pascal Bekaert recorded a rather rare win by winning Low Net C Grade for his net 72.
Neil Mullins was awarded Low Gross for his excellent 80 off the stick.
Thanks to the one prize rule Fernando Gaggino was awarded Low Putts with 26, even though we must mention the very impressive only 21 putts needed by Mark Johnson.
Rasmus Kilde and Manfred Borer both won First Birdie on their 1st hole.
First Sandy Par was not awarded this week, as the two players who managed this feat already won other prizes.
First Par Over 30 was awarded to Tom Alcedo for his effort on his 12th hole.
Laurie O’Connor won Most Improved for shaving 15 shots on his back nine from a disastrous 63 on his front nine, probably showing his pre-game massage hadn’t loosen him up enough.
We had a bit of difficulties this week with our Monthly Medal only awards, as due to a change in the course management we didn’t get our normal spotters, which on the bright side saved us some money, so we resorted to the old system of small flags managed by the players, which was pretty good except for the fact nobody picked them up at the end! So after resorting to the honesty system and some long debate, Peter Bush won Longest Drive over Jeff Landau with a drive between 250 and 500 meters, and less arguably Laurie O’Connor won Closest to the Pin for his effort that ended about 2 feet from the pin.
And the biggest prize of them all, the Monthly Medal, was awarded to Peter Bush for his 41 Stableford points accumulated during the round of the day with his net 67. For his performance Peter will get his name engraved on our Monthly Medal Shield and received a medal (he said might not convince his wife his day was well spent) and a 1,000,000 Rp voucher for Grand Slam Golf merchandise (paid in half by GSG and half by Tee Set).
Once more our Monster Putter Monkey stayed in the bag, as nobody deserved a picture with it, as everybody had a good day on the greens given the highest number of putts was a respectable 37.
Most Strokes would have gone to Jari Antikainen for his 15 shots on par 4 hole #9, but Jari had left in shame and would have anyway not be charged, as he had also collected a skirt, he did pay for.
While on the topic of skirts, what created the most excitement today was perhaps the fun sweepstake where 25 enthusiasts contributed 10,000 Rp each to try and guess on which hole President Pascal would get a skirt, considering he had gotten 10 in a row. All kind of strategies were used, with most opting to pick his early holes, but at the end the President had the last laugh as he finally broke the spell and avoided the dreaded skirt, even though I must admit a couple were quite close. So at the end Pascal ended up splitting the spoils with John Suermondt who was the only one who had shown confidence in the President. But rest assured the 125,000 Rp collected represents only a small portion of his money spent on skirts this year, and will most likely soon be returned.
And finally Modern produced 8 skirts: pictured below Rusty Witwer rocking the wig, Chris Lever, Torben Olsen, Stefan Thiele, Pieter Nielen-Groen and the colorful Mike Riley:
and Jari Antikainen who avoided the photo, and Dirk Kruip who tried to but was instead captured separately:
You can enjoy more pictures of the day here and consult the player by player results here.
Other News
Tee Set Match Play competition
As yesterday was one of the last chances for the participants to complete their warm-up round before the April 2 deadline we had quite a few matches, of which I will only give you unofficial results, as remember the official ones must be emailed by the players to our Match Play El Supremo James Ross.
- Mark Johnson, who was not only on fire with his putter but also chipped in 3 times, beat the hapless Matt Fairey 6 and 5.
- Craig Edwards had an excellent round and defeated Ric Wymer who had a pretty bad day 5 and 4.
- Jeff Landau won 3 and 2 against John Suermondt.
- Laurie O’Connor and Arthur Mallari were all square after 18 holes and decided to continue their match next Sunday at Riverside.
- Rasmus Kilde and Chris Lever both had rather bad rounds, but Rasmus triumphed 3 and 1 at the end.
- Unfortunately, even though he was already at the club and ready to go, Divya Prakash Ahuja had to go home for a family emergency we hope was happily resolved, and cancel his scheduled match with Tony Howarth.
- While earlier in the week Roger Finnie bested Andrew Waite 6 and 4.
As it seems a lot of the warm-up matches won’t be completed by the deadline, our Match Play El Supremo James Ross will determine who wins the remaining matches by default, but don’t worry as this first round only determines in which bracket you will end up for the rest of the competition and everybody will get at least a second match. For more details you can consult our Match Play page.
Tee Set Eclectic
Yesterday’s round was also the third and penultimate round of Cycle 5 of the Tee Set Eclectic, after which the leader board is as follows:
where we can see a lot of movement since the last round, most notably the fact yesterday’s Monthly Medalist Peter Bush took the lead even though he missed the first round, while the diminutive Craig Edwards consolidated his second place, and Mark Johnson – current holder of the D.O.G.S. Eclectic and Tony Howarth are mounting a last minute charge, which promises an exciting final round on April 30, especially considering past winners of our 4 rounds Eclectics needed 51 to put their name on the trophy. You can find more details including all the players results on our Tee Set Eclectic page.
Next Up
Our first visit of the year to Riverside at 735,000 Rp including cart, with a tee off time of 12:30, so please register here.
A sensational 73 off the stick by Simon Reynolds equals Sam Westen’s long-standing record Low Gross on the course to pick up the blue ribbon Low Net – A Grade prize with 67, allowing Neil to take the Low Gross with his 85 off the stick.
Of particular interest amongst the other stuff was a remarkably grump-free Graham McGeady picking up 1st Sandy on hole 3, Kim taking 1st par for HC >= 30 on the first hole despite the amateur admin. crew on duty in the absence of Brenda managing to ignore Kim in the initial prize giving. They are suitably humbled.
We invariably, if a little surprisingly, gather a rich crop of skirts at PJ and today was to be no exception with 8 cross dressers snared out of a maximum possible 26.
A relatively late noon start is of course perfect for allowing you time to hunt for Easter eggs with the kids in the morning before heading off for the fun – your committee truly thinks of everything 🙂
Tee Set 