With the last minute withdrawal of Erol {(some urgent business has just come up!) code perhaps???} 19 LC's teed it up at Rahman Putra under a cloudless sky with just the slightest breeze to help cool the otherwise hot conditions. We played Hills and the course was in excellent shape if a little soft in places, but spoilt a little by uncut tee boxes but it did have very nice greens. But there was much more to the morning than the condition of the course.
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| Mats on his first visit to a 'LC' game strolling the fairway. |
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| Looking towards the 9th green on 'Hills'. |
Since we were last at RP misinformation and Malaysian bureaucracy has taken hold of the club. When I called them last week I was told that senior citizens had a special rate of RM56. This included GF, Buggy sharing & insurance but proof of age would be required. Fair enough. For the youngsters the guest rate would be RM108. As a result I asked all our seniors to bring along the requested proof of age. However, upon confirming our numbers as I arrived this morning I was informed that the"special senior rate" only applied to Malaysian citizens and the proof would be a MyCad. The good news however was that the walk in guest rate was RM82.50. So having explained this to the assembled LC's I collected RM110 from everyone (except 2 members who somehow managed to pay for their GF together with their payment for 2 caddies.). So off I go to register, having filled in the 5 registration forms only to be asked for every ones handicap. OK, no problem, just a bit more bureaucracy. Of course I had to point out that 2 had already paid and was then advised that in addition to the RM82 every flight had to have one compulsory caddy. Why the fuck they couldn't have told me this at the beginning I have no idea. And why the fuck they didn't explain this to Jeff & Ray again I have no idea. Stupidity I suppose.
The registration process was protracted to say the least. This included amongst the other bureaucratic nonsense the laborious writing out of Bag Tags with everyones names and the equally laborious filling in of "Meal Vouchers". These however could only be used I was informed, for Breakfast!!! Which turned out to be just as well as the next bit of nonsense was about to be thrust upon us. They don't take CASH anymore. All F&B bills have to be paid by Credit Card!!!! John Laidley I believe, settled his RM8 bill by this means before the vouchers arrived. The mind boggles.
Eventually we got to the 1st tee only to have to wait for 2 flights of walkers to tee off and we finally got our first flight away at 8:30 and my god were these walkers SLOW.
More problems at the 3rd hole, as Vincent was about to take his second shot, a buggy pulls up along side and the female idiot from the registration desk that took the money (oh yes, money is OK for paying for the golf apparently and for the RM50 deposit for the locker key) starts waving a piece of paper and calls to me. Vincent shanks his shot into the trees. Not a happy camper. Well it tuned out that one of the RM100 notes I had given her had a corner missing and she wanted me to change it. As our lawyer pointed out to the said idiot, the serial number was undamaged and so it was perfectly good legal tender. Suffice it to say that things didn't improve much after that and the round took 5 long hours.
The winner on this painful morning was the golf course. RP is tough as we all know but on this day it was at it's toughest with not one of our 19 players, which included welcome guest and hopefully new member Rick Currin, the City Golf Teaching Pro, managing to play to their handicap. The winner of the February Trophy was Vincent Vijayan with 34 points + 3 bonus points and the R/U was Andre Holm with 32 points + 3 bonus points. The lowest gross was Rick's 78 and the most golf was played by visitor Ken Oakley.
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| The winner looking a bit shocked as he received his trophy! |
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| No prizes for coming second (except for a stroke cut), and rightfully looking truly pissed off! |
Vincent is cut 4 strokes and Andre 1 stroke. The full horrors of the day together with your adjusted handicaps can be found on the attachment.
M&M was taken at the club and was good but it had to be paid for by CC.
As convener of Loose Cannons I will not be taking us to this venue again. There are much better places than RP. They have just lost a good customer. - Mike Smith
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| Can you believe your eyes? - No beer on the table!!!! |
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| 19 Players, and 2 jugs of beer consumed. Well done guys, your health and safety comes first! |
