Cannons all.
This was our second visit to Glenmarie Golf & Country Club this Ramadan. We played the Garden course 2 weeks ago and found it in rather poor condition. On that day the Valley course was closed for 'maintenance' and we decided to take advantage of the Ramadan special offer to play the Valley once the 'maintenance ' was completed. And so 24 LC's teed it up on the Valley under threatening skies but in expectation of finding this superb layout in better if not best condition compared to our last experience of this "prestigious course". Alas, we were to be very disappointed.
The Valley course at Glenmarie is a challenging and picturesque track which was completely renovated by Parslow Golf 3 years ago. It should be in fine if not pristine condition but the opposite was true; the only exception being the greens which were large, true and fast. But the fairways and tee boxes......oh dear. They were a disgrace with large bare areas, a lot of fungus evident and great tracts that had been hollow tined and heavily sanded. Weed infestation was rampant throughout the fairways and the rough. The bunkers were basically OK but earlier players had left their mark....bloody great foot prints in the side slopes that you could had buried a cat in. This of course isn't the fault of the course management; it's a reflection of the extremely poor behaviour of a large number of Malaysian golfers I'm afraid.
But back to the condition of this golf course. It's a disgrace. It's a product of thoroughly bad green keeping practises and lackadaisical management. Both the Glenmarie management team and the members (who pay a hefty price for the 'privilage' of membership and should be able to exert some pressure on management), should be thoroughly ashamed. I hope they get to see this report. I played with Ted Parslow and he was quite shocked at the condition, a mere 3 years after he had handed it over in pristine condition. Let's hope that they get it back into shape otherwise we will not waste our money playing there again, even when there's an offer on green fees.
The early threat of rain passed and gave way to pleasant weather with a freshening breeze. The round was a little slow as those that started on the front nine were held up by some rather slow players ahead; those that were responsible for the graves in the bunkers no doubt!
Of course, a game of golf with the 'Cannons' isn't without it's lighter side.
As we were waiting to start at Tee Box 1 Alan Holgate appeared searching the buggies for his "little green bag". At first I thought he was talking about his caddie poor thing but no, this was a small bag that Alan carries his wallet, car keys, mobile, loose change, Viagra etc in. It was missing. No, it wasn't in any of our buggies and off he went to continue the search. Why doesn't he just put all that stuff in his pockets like everyone else?
Well, it transpired that he had left it in the buggy that he was originally assigned to and left it there when he moved his golf bag to another buggy.
He found it when he tracked that buggy down to another flight playing Garden. Apparently, he had reported this impending catastrophe to 'her in doors' who had immediately cancelled the credit cards.
Are you OK Alan? Will you be allowed out to play next week unsupervised?
The winner, and about time too, was Geoff Parslow with 43 points and the runner-up was Rain Li Tan with 39 points.The lowest gross was Geoff Parslow's 75 and the most golf was played by Richard Moss with 111.
Geoff is cut 7 strokes and Richard 1 stroke.
20 players adjourned to South Sea Seafood for lunch which was notable for several things. Firstly we ended up on 2 tables 30 feet apart with a serving station between the two. Not the best arrangement for a social gathering. The food was superb but as Tony remarked "these prawns must have cost RM10 each". He wasn't far wrong. The food came to RM868 and the drinks; 25 large bottles of Carlesberg & 2 Asahi plus a load of juices came to RM732 and with the ++ the total bill came to whopping RM1775, the best part of RM90 per head!!! Too bloody much. Next week we will return to normality.
A panoramic view of Barry Cousins in action
John Laidley drives off
Barry Cousins at the helm
Our flight comprised Stuart Taylor, Barry Cousins, Geoff McLaws and John Laidley.
Barry (Baza) Cousins posing
The greens were in pretty good condition overall on the Valley Course
The Valley Course, Glenmarie
Geoff McLaws using some fancy optical sighting device to get a distance to the green
Mike - do we have a Cannons ruling on the use of such devices .... I guess being the Loose Cannons of nautical heritage it could be regarded as some form of sextant!
The Valley Course has a beautiful layout but sadly let down by poor fairways and bunkers.
You can't see the faces for the upturned glasses at the South Seas Restaurant but this is Bob Simpson and John Laidley
