… no apologies for once again featuring the Imperial sunset that goes so well with a frozen Margarita 🙂
The Day
For the first time in a while, Tee Setters were not to wake on a Sunday morning to the sound of rain dancing on their hot tin roof – and neither was a short downpour around 10am to do anything to dampen their spirits as we saw the highest turnout of the year so far with 52 Tee Setters joining in the fun on another very fine Tee Set Sunday at Imperial. It appears your committee has inadvertently stumbled upon a near perfect Monthly Medal venue.
Such optimism about the weather was in fact not to be misplaced as the skies quickly cleared and, apart from a light early sprinkling, the round was played in just about perfect conditions.
Two of the ugliest in Jakarta and possibly the world.
Built in the late eighties, their architect needs taking out and shooting ..
The management and staff at Imperial again proved to be accommodating from reception, a fenced off area exclusively for our use and right through to specially marked Tee Set carts, entertaining caddies, a course in surprisingly good condition given the rain and excellent post match service and facilities.
It is always a long enjoyable day, stretched out again this month by the frozen Margaritas, shouted by Pascal to celebrate the birthday of other half of the dynamic duo, King. This together with the in-round pastis meant that the continued absence of the Vice-President for Exotic Drinks was to be barely noticed. Where are you, James?
Pascal proudly extended Tee Set’s reputation for bold and daring golf fashion as you will see. He claims that red is “his” colour and that he was deprived on the course because it clashed with Tee Set green….wait for Hari Merah Putih.
The usual hold up around half way on the 1st or 10th, depending upon which hole you started on – but all rounds were completed in 5 hours or less which, for a Sunday at a top course is, we guess, acceptable.
Many thanks to John Suermondt for taking over the registration in the face of the significantly delayed arrival of Brenda and not only collecting dues for the day but also strong arming plenty of peeps into coughing up their Matchplay fee!!
Just one Newcomer to report in Sepand Zarrabi who was not to take long to get his feet under the Tee Set table, joining the caddies for an occasional ride on the back of his cart, turning up the volume on his music system, raising average course product sales/pax significantly and failing to give in his card before showering, or at all in fact.
Welcome Sepand, you seem like our sort of guy!!
A new record Welcome Back after a rather astonishing 509 weeks away from Jochen Sautter who was to blow away the 18 weeks of Tee Set irregular Manoj Mishra – whose wife had let him out again as she doubtless worked on clearing out the nearby IKEA. Welcome back to all.
Inspired by past glories and eager to share holiday snaps, George “Pulpy” Beverege made a surprise appearance, only to lose his money to a couple of well-known sharks, El Guapo Gaggino and the reigning Matchplay Champion Dave Baglivo. next time. George.
A little like those who organise them, flights were mixed up rather more than usual this week, with young guns Simon and Barbora pitted head to head in preparation for Interleague next week. Simon won out this time 81 to 84 but it showed again Barbora is pushing for the coveted Low Gross prize dominated by Simon and Sam Westen in recent times and we look forward to her Interleague debut next week representing Tee Set.
Other inspired pairings included the Singing President with the former President of Almost Everything, which allowed a range of Tee Set Presidential secrets to be passed through a long line of former Presidents, on a range of topics from shot selection to Interleague selection to the fine art of caddy whispering. The Singing President welcomed the lessons while recognising his obligation to make his own mistakes.
On the subject, the Singing President was once again to refuse to perform for a pleading and admiring audience so, in the words of the immortal Ricky Nelson:
Sing me a song, it won’t take long
You oughta take the time!
Maybe next time!?
The Play
The course proved its usual tough but fair test with a lot of players hovering around their handicaps, and James Ross, defending his Monthly Medal title, came in with a relatively low 38 Stableford points (after a late recount), but still enough to share the honours and the place on the Monthly Medal Shield with Tom Grace.
Remarkably, Tom was to achieve his 38 points despite a 17 (yes, seventeen) on one hole, that’s the beauty of Stableford, one crap hole doesn’t necessarily destroy your day. Despite many aspersions to the contrary, Tom’s 17 strokes was “only” to bring him into equal third place in the all time list behind a couple of nameless players who have managed 18, though the Former President of Almost Everything (AKA The Immediate Past Vice President of Quite a Lot of Things) has memories from the dim and distant past – and well before we kept proper records of such things, of a 21 by someone else who shall remain nameless but it might very well have Blackwell in it.
Simon Reynolds maintained his Low Gross dominance but, with 40 putts, was saved narrowly from Monster Putter by a late card from Pascal with 41.
Matt Kaempf joined Tom Grace as both a benefactor and beneficiary to the Tee Set coffers, winning back his skirt money with Most Improved. A very late Ken Runyon who managed to set a new record himself by registering at 9am, won Low Net A Grade on a count-back from Alistair Livingston, following a blistering home nine of 37.
Norman Bunter was able to wave the red one for Low Net B grade and once again that perennial prize winner, Leona, took out Low Net C – and was to be joined in the money by husband Jan who shot the 1st Par for >= 30 handicap. We hope they are declaring all this income.
Joseph d’Cruz had both 1st Birdie (1) and first sandy but this second prize defaulted to playing partner, the Former President of Almost Everything, who managed to par the 17th despite a visit to the beach.
2014 Low Putt King, Craig Binks, again shone with the putter with a miserly 28 on challenging greens to take Low Putts.
A relatively modest crop of Cross-Dressers today led by a couple of Tee Setters for whom Sunday would not be Sunday with a Skirt, John and Matt, while Pascal’s feat in the Monster Putter category and Tom’s in the Most Strokes arena are covered above.
Matchplay
24 players already signed up and paid their 100,000 for this year’s Matchplay.
This year’s format will be vaguely different but no doubt the poisoned chalice holder will put something together for us all to reveal its inner mysteries before we get going with this year’s Matchplay in March!
Next Up
Padang Golf Modern, a very nice course next Sunday provides a good and fair challenge for Tee Setters, despite (or perhaps because of, who knows?) small and generally elevated greens.
Less fair in the past has been the inevitable wait around half way as the Starter over-packs the course after our groups have tee-ed off; hopefully no such problem with our visit on Sunday, however, as we are promised a 12:30 Shotgun Start, so that is good news – though you would be strongly advised not to be late, Wina and Tetty 🙂
Situated off the JORR and newly benefiting from its completion, access to Modern is a whizz from the south or the centre. Register here as usual.
All up cost including shared cart of 730,000.
See ya at Modern!!! … Tee Set
and its good night from them …..
A couple of Newcomers, some rather famous (infamous? – ED) battle scarred old Welcome Backs, and a bunch of others, sees us already with more than 30 signed up for the fun in the sun at PJ on Sunday.
Rick Zanker led the Welcome Backs with a rather low 12 weeks though special mention has to be made of Tee Set regular Neil Mullins who returned from a short, self-imposed exile, with a half set of clubs and a somewhat restored, but still fragile, karma. Neil was heading for a remarkable first round back until some wayward driving and chunky chipping late on threatened further depletion of the contents of his bag.
It is received wisdom that Permata Sentul has the cutest caddies to be found on Jakarta area courses and there was little evidence to contradict this today as they displayed their virtues (eg green reading skills) in their pink uniforms across the course,
Chris Smith was also totally up on his luck winning Low Net B on a countback from Norman, first birdie (which he sacrificed to the Singing President) and the envy of his playing partners as you can see in the photo.
The flow of Newcomers to Tee Set continued with four new faces and some memorable welcome backs led by Neil Maclean after 144 weeks and Chris Till after 136 – with Chris denying that he had ever played with us before and insisting he should be another Newcomer!!
Tee Set 
