Category: Palm Springs

Batam Away – 10th-13th October, 2017

On By Stuart TaylorIn Batam, Batam Hills, golf, Loose Cannons, Palm Springs, Tering Bay, Tering Bay Golf and Country ClubLeave a comment

First day before tee-off at Terring Bay-1

Eight of the ordinary LC’s went to Batam this week to play Palm Springs, Terring Bay and Batam Hills and the good part flying away, it’s just a short convenient trip with Malindo Air from Subang Airport.

 

Our first stop was at Palm Springs which was like a homecoming for me as I used to be member there when I was living in S’pore. They have added New Resort Course since I left so they operate 36-holes now, it’s a nice place and highly recommended but very busy over the weekend. The course can handle a heavy downpour well as it’s built on sand. See report issued for results.

 

Wednesday being the first day of the two day Batam Competition we played Terring Bay, also familjiar to me from my S’pore times. It has some very nice holes along the sea. One could sort of notice that the business is not as good as it used to be.

 

The final day we played Battam Hills a new experience for me. A very nice club house with Egypt decorations on the walls and nicely manicured plants along the fairways. It has a few challenging narrow fairways holes combined with wide opened. The last two courses are also very nice to play but cannot handle water as good as Palm Springs.

We stayed downtown Nagoya at Hotel – Harmoni Batam conveniently located next to Masale Village, a very good place for a few nights.

Batam and specially Nagoya has developed nicely over the years, it’s a lot more traffic though, the main roads are good and the always present motorcycles are well behaved compare to what we are used to.

 

Results

 

As I suspected with the form Bernard has shown lately he won with 36/40 = 76 points, followed by Ted 34/37 = 71 and Martin Walsh 37/32 = 69. It goes to show that one need a lower handicap to be competitive over two days or more.

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Correction …… Glen Wombwell’s score at Tering Bay on 11th October should be 105 for 35 points ….. and Ray Funnell’s score at Batam Hills on 12th October should be 117 for 21 points. This has been corrected in the master spreadsheet and the handicap records.

We had an incident/discussion the first day about Preferred Lie, we all know about that rule “closely mown area through the green” but this happen to be on another hole then we played on. My judgement then was that it’s based on the type/condition of the grass that counts, not on which fairway you are.

 

It was a very nice trip and I especially thank Bernard for volunteer for ‘money bag man’ it helped easing the task.

Photos

Last night seafood dinner and enjoymentPar 3 hole 7 Palm Course ovelooking the sea towards S'por

 

Results – Palm Springs GCC, Batam – 10th October 2017

On By Stuart TaylorIn golf, Loose Cannons, Palm SpringsLeave a comment
On our first day on Batam we played Palm Springs GCC Resort and Palm nines. A bit unlucky as it started to rain cats and dogs when we arrived from the airport. We were in doubt that we actually could play but after about two hours we begin to see Singapore on the other side so we went out.
Despite all the water that came down the fairways were in good condition some bunkers were damaged though. We just managed to finish it before it became too dark.
We all enjoyed Palm Springs GCC and they have two more nines to play.

Results

How did it go:
– winner Bernard 38
– second Ted 37
– third Glen 34
– lowest gross Ted and Bernard 84
– most gross Ray 110
Screen Shot 2017-10-11 at 9.10.25 AM

Results – Batam Away – Palm Springs – 3rd November 2014

On By Stuart TaylorIn away, Batam, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Loose Cannons, Palm SpringsLeave a comment

Report

The second day of the Loose Canons Batam Away trip was held at Palm Springs Golf Course. There was a large competition (Nongsa Cup) being held at the club but we got off on the Resort 9 at around 10:30am and then crossed over to the Palm Course by which time most of the Nongsa Cup competitors were finished.

The Resort 9 course was very pleasant and well maintained but the Palm Course was really very good – challenging holes with some incredible views. Greens on the Palm were very quick and with the slopes and pin positions made this a difficult 9.

We finished by around 3:30 pm to 4pm and had drinks on the verandah prior to taking the bus back to the hotel.

Results

Richard Moss played yet another excellent round (44 points) and increased his lead on the field winning again the first prize (2 sleeves of balls) with Martin Walsh (42 points) taking the second prize of 1 sleeve of balls. Full results below for the day :

Current positions after Day 1 and Day 2 are as follows:

Photos

Video

Loose Cannons Southern Tour – Batam

On By Stuart TaylorIn http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Loose Cannons, Palm Springs, Southern Tour, Taman DutaMas, Tering Bay Golf and Country Club2 Comments
Cannons all.
8 LC’s made it to Batam and enjoyed 2 days of golf on 2 very good courses in sublime weather.
Batam has changed out of all recognition since I was last there in1979. Back then there were no metalled roads and most of the buildings were wooden. The island was covered in forest with 
a population of only 6000 in 1970 and probably no more than 10,000 by 1979. Today most of the forest has gone, clear logged with mostly secondary forest and shrub left. There are wide dual carriageway roads and a bustling commercial / industrial based community supported by a population of just over 1M with an annual population growth of 8% over the last decade. Amazing! 
Mind you, there are plenty of signs of a country trying to run before it can walk.
Flying Fire Fly for the first time was a good experience; the flight being on time in both directions and their terminal at Subang is both comfortable and efficient. Such a wonderful change from the LCCT at Sepang. Entry was via a 7 day USD10 visa.
The Hotel Harmoni was also a good choice being a reasonable 4 star and right in the heart of Nagoya. Everything was literally just around the corner.
On day one we played Tering Bay in cool cloudy weather with a nice breeze blowing throughout. 
Tering Bay is a testing Greg Norman track and although the course was in good shape; especially the greens, the bunkers with their steep deep sand faces were very challenging especially if you were embedded in the face. The clubhouse is in need of some TLC but adequate and good friendly service. The club found us a mini bus for the return to the hotel and we hired him for the rest of the tour.
For the record Kevin Wiggins returned the best score of 83 for 42 points with Ted Parslow R/U with a superb 78 for 40 points.
Day 2 was the September Medal Game played at Palm Springs. This was a lovely picturesque 36 hole layout having 5-shared greens. We played the toughest of the 4; Palm & Island, measuring 5445 metres with a slope of 126. With a mixture of forest and beach backdrops it was a pleasure to play, again in delightful weather. The clubhouse too was excellent, Balanese style with all amenities and overlooking the beach.
The winner was Kevin again with 82 for 44 points and the R/U was myself with 39 points. The lowest gross was 76 by Geoff Parslow (34 back 9) finding his form, and the most golf was played by Richard Moss with 106.
Kevin is cut 8 strokes and myself 1 stroke.
A very good tour and worth another visit when we can try some of the other 5 courses on the island. Lots of fun.
I will be forwarding some photos to Stuart for inclusion in the Blog.


The photos and captions below by courtesy of Raymond Keys


If you wish to see the photos in original format (large size) please click on the photo itself
Watch this space for next Tuesday’s venue.
The Batam Tourists

My ball is in there somewhere!!!

I’ll give that hole a good whack and see what happens!!

I see the little bugger!

Can anyone see Barry’s ball?

No. – His shorts are too long!!

Richard, proving that he has had training as a mountain goat!

Good balance and well executed back swing.

No follow – through, but job well done!

Barry played with ‘FANI’ all afternoon, but she knew what I was up to and craftily managed to covered up the ‘FA’

Oh Susana…..Lovely girl.

Barry seeking confirmation that 100,000 is really only seven quid!

One of the cheery waitresses. (Note her belt has slipped)!

What a happy bunch of golfers. Especially the guy at the end of the table;-)

Day 2 “Trophy Day” at ‘Palm Springs’

And we still have a ‘full house’!

Beautiful back drop.

Ted lets rip!

There is a very large water hazard behind the green!

A little bit of TLC and this place could be even better!

Fishing or collecting balls?

Kevin – Did you lose your wallet?

Yummy – What a tasty bull frog!

That looks like my miracle ball!

It bounced on the water in front of the wall and somehow managed to get up over it!

The second flight playing the ‘Waiting Game!’

The ‘Pro’ says “Keep both feet firmly on the ground!

Kevin – A very happy September Trophy winner, (until he learned that he had been cut EIGHT)!
Barry contemplating dessert!

I wonder what he chose?

Mike