Last call to come and join us for another treat at one of our favourite courses, Bogor Raya, playable at this price as part of Ramadan specials offered by the top courses. Sign up here as usual.
During the month Ramadan, please remember that your caddies and the clubhouse staff are fasting, so cut them some slack, be extra kind! See you next week!!!
The Day
Compliments to the photographer today for the best shots of the season so far. We have a fine collection here, starting with buddies Michael and James together, then joined by Mark and Juju. There will be a prize next week for anyone who can accurately predict what Mark was saying to the photographer (those in the photo not eligible).
There was a delayed start due to a morning tournament, so we teed off just after 12. Just before halfway, the rain came and the lightning scared off half the field, who headed for the safety and comfort of the clubhouse and elsewhere. This brave caddie stayed, and Geoff, Diarmuid and Richard were content to share some stories and coldies in the rest hut. Diarmuid had his best Tee Set round to date on a tough course with a net 73, rewarded for perserverance!!!
And now for the glamour shots…..let’s start with Ric finishing his round as the sun set, brilliant shot. Sami in full action, obviously earlier in the day, in front of the pines. To finish, we have the view from the clubhouse after match…only Imperial comes close!
Welcome for the first time to Eduardo, welcome back to our regulars below – sorry we love you but you don’t get a special mention after such short breaks, except Bob of course, who is one of our most generous sponsors!!! Always welcome back Bob!!!! Oh ok, and Rav, Ruth and Mike…..great to see you all back too.
It was the last weekend before the fasting month of Ramadan, and there was an accident on the toll, so the trip home was almost 3 hours, but that happens sometimes….we’ll be back to Rainbow.
The Play
The round of the day was a net 67 by Bill, a fine recovery from some recent scratchiness (pictured here as the evil pixie). Mike was back shooting darts again with a 69 and James and Richard led in the A graders, with Richard shooting the lowest gross score with 78. Ruth had first birdie, but escaped a photo, and Michael, who was everywhere this week, had first sandy, but he also had a skirt and that photo is far more interesting. Jude was awarded Low Putts, because we could not bear another photo of Michael, and Jude received the shiniest of all 100k notes – check it carefully!! Full player by player scores here.
And now for our favourite skirt photo – our surviving recognition of the battler …there were actually two players who qualified for skirts, but there was only one for the photo, and it was, yes, you guessed it…Michael…magnificent!
Another treat at one of our favourite courses, Bogor Raya, playable at this price as part of Ramadan specials offered by the top courses. Sign up here as usual.
During the month Ramadan, please remember that your caddies and the clubhouse staff are fasting, so cut them some slack, be extra kind! See you next week!!!
No, not the Masters……
As the Masters weekend unfolds at Augusta National, there’s also an amazing golf double header in the Bogor area with DOGS at Rancamaya on the Saturday and Tee Set at Rainbow Hills on Sunday. Perhaps not the manicured gardens, quirky rules, educated spectators (“patrons”), pimento cheese sandwiches or white jacketed caddies….. but…. world class golf courses all the same, with lots of charm.
All players play off preferred tees, stroke play format. A reminder to smugglers to be creative as Rainbow is on the lookout.
If you haven’t yet signed up, there’s still time, so sign up here.
The Day
With so much going on over the Easter weekend and many of our players out of country, the turnout of 28 was surprisingly strong. Imperial again tested our players, with some players crashing down to earth after their recent runs of form. Of course, there were also some great rounds too. Big welcome backs to Timo and Vanco after decent absences, to Steve and Doug after wee sabbaticals, and Tapio, Richie, Dyta and Al who we missed when we blinked, but who get a mention here after their 3 weeks off. As always, Imperial provided a safe and comfortable space for the after match.
It was our first day of the eclectic, run this year by James “Pants on Show” Bristow, as a one off competition detached from the monthly medal. It was indeed a chance to get a jump on the competitition, so no surprise to see former eclectic champ El Guapo hunting to reclaim our ugliest trophy for his prize cabinet, and starting well with a birdie on hole 2 (pictured below).
The course was in great shape as usual, with the famous Madonna hole 12 (above), emerging from the rainy season trimmed and ready for some sun. It would be nice if Hole 18 guided weary players into the clubhouse, but, on the contrary, it punished our Tee Setters, over and over again. A number walked off with their rounds shattered, but remember, it is eclectic, so you get a chance to redeem yourself next time we play at Imperial. Low numbers meant no after game group excursion to Climaxxx, Gimmy’s bar around the corner, so at least one unfinished Spanish gin bottles remains behind the bar, ready for next time.
The Play
All scores for the day can be found here. The best rounds were from Indar (66) to win Low Net C Grade, Terrence (69) to win Low Net B Grade, and Pat (also 69) who was unlucky not to be rewarded, but looks good in the early eclectic form. Dougie also shot under par on his return. JP won Low A Grade with an even par 72 but was OB for the photo. Terrence and Indar are pictured here after telling Ric a joke he didn’t get. Roger, testing out his winter headgear, won Low Gross with 80.
Other winners included a quadrella for first birdie on the second hole – filled with thoroughbreds Dougie, El Guapo, Terrence and James. El Guapo here signalling he is OK; James still thinking about his 10 on the 18th and Dougie, both hands on the cash like a true Scot. Dan shared low putts with Roger and Indar, but won other things, so Dan gets his own shot. Steve took First Sandy – but escaped before prizes, Indar and Dan won other things, so Jeremy was awarded the prize, pictured here after telling Ric a joke, which he got this time. Alas – no skirt photo today – Vanco would have been magnificent in all the gear, but somehow escaped.
In place of the skirt photo, we have been receiving reports and photos from the Bandung Bash, most of which we cannot share here, and included dressing up!!!!! This one passed the censors and shows what a great event it is every year, well done Geoff!!!
As we move out of rainy season, we start to return to our beloved Bogor area courses, including Rainbow Hills Golf Club, which has its three nines – Forest, Mountain and Stones. It’s a fantastic golf venue, rated once of the best in Asia, outdoor seating, great practice greens, excellent, friendly staff. We’ll confirm the nines we are playing in our reminder post later in the week.
DOGS are playing up the road at Rancamaya on the Saturday so it’s the perfect opportunity to join them, stay overnight and help the local economy recover. Lots of accomodation and eating options in the area.
Sign up here as usual.
And please don’t forget to contact MJ to book your accommodation for the DOGS/Tee Set event at Rancamaya on the weekend of 8-9 May. All details here. In summary, the weekend includes a charity event on the Saturday, a BBQ Saturday night and the DOGS/Tee Set challenge match on the Sunday, played in parallel with the final round of the DOG’s eclelctic round to decide the Big DOG. Of course, you can do any combination of these, whatever suits! The match is always one of confused loyalties, as so many of us play both in both societies, but team captains will be tapping players on the shoulder in the coming weeks, and we’ll see who plays with which team. Enough for now…..
There’s so much going on in golf this week, so just in case you forgot about the first round of the Imperial Eclectic, a quick reminder. If you are not in Bandung or on a sleepover down south then sign up here.
For those who have never played in an ecletic comp, it is run over multiple weeks, in our case 4 weeks, at the same course. Your best net score on each hole is your total score…and the lowest score after four weeks wins!!
So, with others distracted, here is your chance to get a jump on the competitition and get some good scores under your belt in the first round. The others will need to chase. Enjoy Imperial and Climaxxx after!!!!
Now, some good news on the schedule, next week’s round 11 April is now fixed at Rainbow Hills, allowing a Bogor area double header for those playing Rancamaya with DOGS on the Saturday. A good chance to stay overnight, enjoy some great Italian at Giuliani’s in Sentul, stock up on fresh avocadoes, rambutan or durian, if that’s your thing.
The Day and the Play
Yes, as usual Monthly Medal day is about the play, so congratulations up front to Michael, our Monthly Medalist for March, with 44 stableford points. Michael adds this to his Big Dog and other recent victories. He threatens to play himself out of C Grade at this rate. Michael is a lot of fun on and off the course and was a very popular winner!
He outplayed and out survived the rest of our field of 42 on what was one of the hottest days we have had for a while.
Our call to speed up play was on everyone’s mind: groups that started on hole 10 had a longer wait between nines through no fault of their own, but generally groups moved well with the faster group being 4 hours 43 minutes and the slowest being 5 hours and 5 minutes, but they finished directly behind the groups in front of them. For a walking course in that heat, we’re ok with that for now, well done!.
Welcome to newcomer Zach, pictured in wig below, and big welcomes back to the Greens, Cindy and Adam, Tapio, Marvin and Jeremy, who is pictured below with the smile of the week.
A big call out, or should I say a big whisper, to Geoff and his company, Kojo, for sponsoring the Monthly Medal, as they have done for many years!
The after match was enjoyable as usual, the processing of results was fast thanks to Beby and Ric, the food and service excellent, and the presentations entertaining, with Bill donning his DOGS tee shirt out of brotherly love and to remind everyone of our DOGS – Tee Set weekend at Rancamaya on 8-9 May. Details here – so be snappy, book your rooms now with MJ before the best ones go.
Talking of snappy, there were some great threads on display today. Bill’s shorts get an honourable mention and Colourful Christine as always was among the trendsetters, but hubby Arnold, outshone Christine today in this brave ensemble of purple, hot pink and sparkled belt, with matching mask. Christine, instead, featured in winners’ photos below. Suave Gurav and Fancy Pants Bristow were missing today and have some catching up to do. As always, our skirt photo brings out some colour and movement, and newcomer Zach joined Bill and Diarmuid to show off the gear.
There were lots of winners today, a slightly changed prize system to align with stableford scoring, so net and gross stroke scores are no longer considered, but left in here to recognise some great rounds. As announced last week, we have done away with Monster Putter and Most Strokes fines, so they are blocked completely with apologies to Jari who did his best to get noticed with a 13, despite the pick up rule. Here is the summary of results, redacted until we reprogram our system to match the decisions of the Committee.
In matchplay, Sami won his first ever matchplay singles match of his golfing life, 5 and 4 in an absolute spanking. He invented the term “delayed back spin” after landing an approach shot on a slope, and watching it, several seconds later roll towards the hole. There were other great lines about his win but this is a family blog so they will remain on the course and your scribe would rather forget about it.
So now for the other winners, some of them double winners. I’ll have to talk you through the photos because it’s complicated….starting with the skill prizes, (1) TPS shared closest to the pin with Rika – more on her later, (2) our youngest golfer Kayla smashed a 200m bomb to win Longest Drive ladies , (3) Richard had a miserly, fringe dwelling 23 putts, (4) Sami had first sandy par on Hole 1, and (5) Rika, Jeremy, Juju and Axel shared the love but kept the money after all having First Birdie on Hole 1. Rika also shared Nearest to the Pin and Jeremy also had longest drive for Men with 237m. No wonder he was smiling like this!! Axel was also runner up for the Monthly Medal and (6) Christine, now changed out of her colourful gear into winner’s attire, was third, great rounds from both players. Clear as mud? Well done all!!!!!
More photos here and complete scores of the day here.
Next Up: Sunday 4 April, First Round of Annual Eclectic, Imperial Golf Klub (with a K), 11.55am 995k with carts
Yes we are back to Imperial Golf Klub with a “K”, for the first round of the eclectic, which this year is a four round event held during the rounds at Imperial. James “I’ll give it a go” Bristow has kindly volunteered to manage the eclectic comp for us, which will start this week, and continue on 11th July and 1st August, finishing up on 14th November.
Men, and women who dare, will be playing off the white tees . The standard Tee Set prizes will also operate for each of the 4 rounds .
This event was previously combined with the monthly medal at Cengkareng but will now be more visible with the full scores and leaderboard published the week after each round to allow players to track their position and which holes they need to make improvements on .
There’s lots happening over the Easter weekend, including Geoff’s Bandung Bash – see here – but for those wanting to get off to a good start in the eclectic comp, most likely with reduced numbers this weekend, here’s your chance! Sign in here.
I’m not sure if we can call it a tradition yet after one time, but players are invited to Gimmy’s Climaxxx bar nearby the course, for great food, drinks and music after play. If they keep having us back, this will also be the venue for the presentation of the Eclectic Comp after its crescendo, grand finale, big finish…um, climax…on 14 November.
It’s come around quick, another chance to have a crack at the Monthly Medal at Cengkareng. If you haven’t signed up, please do so here.
Men are off the blues tees; stableford scoring system, including pick ups when you realise you can no longer score a point (that is, when you go over net double bogey for your handicap). Pick up, move on……
We usually have over 60 players for Monthly Medal, so speed of play is important, we need to get a wriggle on to finish before dark, and pick ups will help. We have also done away with Most Strokes on a Hole, so there is no longer an expectation to finish out. The course will be recording start and finish times for each flight so please keep up with the group in front. The first pairing will be known fast golfers, so they will set the pace. If you like playing in the first flights, you’ve got to be quick, not just to the course, but on the course.
Because, we use stableford scoring for Monthly Medal (yes we are different!!), we will have prizes for highest number of points, second and third, but no net prizes or low gross, as these will be reserved for weeks when we have stroke play scoring. We continue with other prizes, as well as longest drive and nearest to the pin, so there is still plenty to shoot for. And the battler fines – Monster Putter and Most Strokes are gone….but not the skirts :-)…….
See you at Cengkareng!!!!!!
The Day
Apologies for the slightly delayed post. The retro score sheet pictured here brought back fond memories of days yore and helped speed up presentations, but slowed down our process of reporting, so we have worked out a compromise for future rounds. Quick turnaround of results and presentations are important but will be done with our standard computerised system.
We arrived to see the normally pristine BSD in the midst of some landscaping, but the course was in its normal great condition, with its fantastic variety of holes. The rain came bucketing down mid round, but only long enough to allow some liquid refreshments and time to get to know newcomer, Gaylord, pictured here taking shelter with Adrian and Diarmuid; with Bill behind the camera! With 32 players, lower than usual, there were far more opportunities for prizes. Big welcome back to more of our Thai guys, particularly Peraphon after 76 weeks, and to Octa and Andrew. People chose their preferred tee box, a change this year that is so far working well.
The Play
Thank you Indar in C Grade for making sure not all the net winners were former Presidents; Geoff whispering his way to a 69, Roger bounced back into form with a 71 and the lowest score of the day with 79. Other prizes came in pairs – Jean-Pierre won low putts and tied with James for first birdie, Bill and Octa first sandy (and photo of the day) and Jude and Terence most improved. Full scores here.
Now, this will be the last time we have a battlers’ section in this form. In future, only skirts will be “honoured”. No more Monster Putter or Most Strokes. So….Gaylord, consider your first round historic for Tee Set, as the last Monster Putter. There were five skirts but only Diarmuid, Franz and Andrew were around for the photo – left wondering where the skirt and wigs were. Ric was wearing these at home on a rare day off.
Please sign up here. Men to play off the blue tees; stableford scoring system. In line with the Committee’s decision, 200k will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd stableford overall (not each grade like other stroke rounds) and low gross. 100k will be awarded for all other prizes, including longest drive and nearest the pin.
The only remaining fine will be for skirts – just because it’s fun and players in all grades get skirts at least once in their playing days – even our reigning Club Champion and great lady of Tee Set, Cucu, had a skirt once. Yep, didn’t reach the ladies tee….Tom and I were witnesses…Cucu in a Tutu.
As signalled in our post last week, we will be tracking the times of each group this week to see how we are progressing on speed of play. We don’t want to single out anyone but we will check gaps between flights, so please keep up with the group in front. They will set the pace!!
In what has become a highlight of the year since starting a few years back, the Tee Set and DOGS stay and play weekend on 8-9 May is coming together, thanks to efforts of MJ and the respective brains trusts. Full details are provided here.
The prime rooms are going fast so make your booking soon. No deposits are required but cancellations after 1 May will incur the full room charge. It’s a fantastic weekend, consisting of a relaxed charity comp on the Saturday, a legendary BBQ/Saturday evening, and a battle for bragging rights on the Sunday, which co-incides with the deciding round for the DOGS Big Dog. At this stage the BBQ will be on your own account, but sponsors will be adding some extra bits and pieces to make it special.
This course is always a treat to play.
Green fees are 1 million Rp with carts. Tee off is 11.35am with men off the white tees; you’ll see why.
Register here as usual.
A big thank you from Bags and James to everyone for arranging to play the first practice round of matchplay by the deadline of 28 March as requested. The remaining matches have been delayed for good reason and will be decided in time.
Again, we are trying to encourage people to speed up play. Some of our flights don’t tee off until 1245 so in order to finish well before dark, we need to be aiming for maximum 4 and a half hour rounds, pushing if we can for 4 hour rounds, which would be awesome. We are currently tracking at over 5 hours per round; so we can only improve this if everyone cares about it and we change our ways. Our first flight normally finishes within 4 and a half hours, so it is not too much to ask.
So, the key tips consistent with the Rules of Golf are:
None of us want to police slow play, so please do it yourself! Our aim is to get below the four and half hour round target, so we will be monitoring this across flights and letting you know our progress each week. If you enjoy more time in the sun, the chance to stop and chat, or, the lower cost per hour of longer rounds, midweek on a suburban course is a fantastic time to play golf.
Finally…… while the courses are still a bit heavy, we are applying a local rule of preferred lies – lift, clean and place – but only on the fairways and closely mown areas. It does not apply to a ball in the rough. Cengkareng for example has punishing rough for a reason – to punish us– so you must play the ball as it lies, or, you can take a drop (one shot penalty) from the knee (not a place) for an unplayable lie; it is your right to determine what is unplayable for you. You are not permitted to sit your ball up without penalty so you can hit a sweet 5 wood or hybrid to get out of trouble.
The Day
We could have led with any number of great group photos today – you can view them here – but we wanted to recognise Samret’s best ever round, a gross 73, net 62, which included an eagle. Well done Samret, your playing partners enjoyed watching your round too, although Ric here seems a bit reluctant to hand over your second 200k prize for the day.
The second round of Interleague was enjoyed by almost everyone. It is a fantastic competition and the Riverside club provides an ideal venue. Its practice facilities and safe, open air space for after match gathering allows us to keep enjoying our golf and seeing each other. The start was a little delayed due to the holiday weekend attracting a larger than usual morning crowd, but we got through. Teams with gaps were supplied out of the players who turned up for the Tee Set competition.
Lots of newcomers – welcome everyone mentioned in the table below – and a massive welcome back to Ola after 195 weeks and Noel after 55 weeks as well as the others below who rejoined us. Great to have you playing.
The Play
So, being a combined competition, we will cover both Tee Set competition and Interleague results, from a biased Tee Set perspective of course!! First the full Tee Set scores, minus a few who did not submit cards, are here, with results summarised as follows:
We have mentioned Samret’s great round, but Pras in B Grade and Rika in C Grade had excellent rounds of 63 and 64 to win their grades, and JAWS Captain and former Tee Set Vice President, Simon, was awarded Low Gross with 74. None of the net winners were playing interleague, so there were no complaints of their handicaps, just congrats on great rounds.
Photos of other winners above, and there were lots, are here.
Ric led our Tee Set interleague team today from an off field position as he worked himself back into form; Captain Sam was there in spirit. Andy, was given the tough task against Riverside GM and steady front runner Peng from Pocksia, and squared the match with both players shooting even par. In form Dave took advantage of a slow start from Pocksia and Interleague Overall Captain, Roger, who has also been in spectacular form recently; several factors at play here – Dave’s outstanding play and his secret magic potion, Roger’s pre-match admin torture and perhaps some residual loyalty to his old team, although Tee Setters playing for other teams have never shown this to be true, so we will discount that. Anyone who knows Roger knows better too.
Matt and Adrian squared their match with JAWS. Geoff and Jude, opponents last month in the Tee Set matchplay, paired up extremely well, unfortunately choosing the same holes to shoot birdies on and eventually suffering a one down loss after their Cloggie opponent chipped in on the last hole, what a finish. Last month’s superstars, Mike and Arnold, were out barked by a couple of in form DOGS. They may have been distracted by a 76 year old running from nowhere on the first hole (their tenth) with a bee in his bonnet, who turned out to be a Tee Set team mate. James, playing for the DOGS, wisely pointed to his Tee Set opposition to deal with the intruder.
Tee Set finished with 4 points for the day and we now sit in third position behind JAWS in second and DOGS in the lead. Whether greyhounds, pointers, retrievers or Jack Russells, we are counting on DOGS being more natural chasers, so we’ll see how they go from the front. JAWS continue to be snappy too, although our move to lend a member of the previous Tee Set champion team to JAWS opponent Sandbaggers did deny the sharks two valuable points. We had offered Tom but DOGS claimed him under the non-existent “same family, same team” rule, so the ever sly Sandbagger Captain El Guapo drew on his next option. On recent form this could have backfired badly, but matchplay stalwart Jari’s hot start combined with some on song play from the ring in to make the JAWS team of Aeden and Chris, who both played decent golf themselves, wonder wtf was happening as they went down 5 and 4. Interleague skips April because of Ramadan, so the next round will be in mid May.
And now to round us off with our favourite battlers section…there were no skirts!!!! We debated whether we should draw attention to the battlers, but there are three reasons why this section is so good.
1. Our first timer and battler from last week, Diarmuid, was instantly recognised this week from his photo and welcomed back on registering.
2. Our winner of most strokes, Jari – so often a winner of cash prizes with us – subscribes that the golden rule of marketing is being noticed for something, whether its good or bad, and
3. Do you think Tom would wear this T-shirt if he did not want it to be noticed
So here we go, and here’s to this week’s battlers, cheers!!!!
Thanks to the polite yet persistent negotiation of the non-singing, non-whispering immediate past President, Roger, we have secured the wonderful BSD course for four rounds this year, the first being next Sunday.
Green fees are 1 million Rp with carts; a reasonable price for a world class course. Tee off is 11.35am with men off the white tees; you’ll see why.
Register here as usual.
There are a few admin bits and pieces to remind you about but that can happen later in the week when you are more likely to remember.
