Results – Tasik Puteri Golf & Country Club – 11th September 2012

On By Stuart TaylorIn http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Loose Cannons, Tasik PuteriLeave a comment

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Cannons all.
 
Tasik Puteri was in very good condition overall, the only grumble being the bunkers which had been recently refilled with fresh sand that was so deep and soft as to make playing out of near impossible. Remedy; avoid the bunkers I suppose! With surprisingly few other golfers at the course we were off on time after a short dispute between the starter and the supervisor over which of the nines were in play, but once that was sorted out the round proceeded at good pace (for most) on the Puteri & Putera 9’s.
 
The weather too was good with a strong breeze picking up towards the end of the round.
 
The winner  was Bernhard Romahn with 44 points and the runner-up was Barry Cousins with 43 points.
The lowest gross was 80 by John Laidley and the most golf was played by Alan Holgate with 119.
Bernhard is cut 8 strokes and Barry 1 stroke.
 
With the demise of the Equatorial we mustered at the Chin Hiong Restoran half way back to the toll where the food was so-so but the price reasonable. But this was not a patch on the Equatorial.

Photos

 The usual chaos at the start to get 20 odd Loose Cannons into buggies and away.
 Our group’s starting hole was the 10th hole – a misty start.
Tony tees off and sets his usual blistering pace around the course – we never saw the group behind us the whole round.
Now just check out the bend in Alan Holgate’s club as he swings through demonstrating the monstrous power he is applying to the club …. now if only that power could be transferred to the ball.
 Aftab chips onto the green on the short over-the-water par 3 14th hole.
 A serene view over the lake …… after we waited for the ripples to die down after Alan’s ball went in.
 Alan again showing his driving prowess.
 Tasik Puteri is a beautiful course and fairly well maintained.
 Alan Holgate has his “energy bar” break after abandoning his play on this hole.
 The tough 18th hole …. it’s uphill all the way.
 Aftab follows the caddy’s lead in combatting the strong morning sun.
 Tony in action on the dance floor.
 Our helpful and always smiling caddy … Dini.
 Tony hits on on a short par 3 3rd hole.
 Alan Holgate in jovial form.

A panoramic view of the long par 5 4th hole.

 Tony Morris also demonstrating his power at club bending.
 Aftab hits one off the tee in a steady and consistent manner.
 You can just see Alan’s ball heading off straight down the middle.
 Tony ponders his putt – the clubhouse drawing closer in the background.
 A fine band of Loose Cannonites – Tony Morris, Alan Holgate, Aftab Ahmad and Stuart Taylor.

 Finally we reach the 8th hole which was our 17th hole … one to go then it’s a much needed refreshment and lunch.
 Tony impersonating an Australian cattle rustler.
 Alan Holgate impersonating an F1 Honda Team driver.
 The final hole – Alan hits his second to the green … or rather short of the green.
The new restaurant “Chin Hiong” was successful although not quite as good as our previous haunt the “Equatorial Restaurant”

 After numerous amber refreshments and a belly full of food, spirits were good.
Barry is in great need of a wardrobe consultant

Video

Results – Berjaya Hills Golf & Country Club – 4th September 2012

On By Stuart TaylorIn Berjaya Hills Golf and Country Club, Bukit Tinggi, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Loose CannonsLeave a comment

Cannons all.
For the second week running we played in the rain.
18 LC’s made their way to the mountains through the KL haze and endured the lengthy registration process that seems to be the norm these days at most local golf venues. We eventually got started at 8:15 under leaden skies; all from tee box 1 as the tenth tee is at the farthest point on the course, and this always leads to a rather long delay between the first and last flight. But more of that later.
By the time the first flight got to the second tee the rain began; a heavy drizzle, and it continued intermittently for much of the front nine. Berjaya Hills was in very nice condition with much long needed maintenance in evidence including the repair of the land slip at the 4th tee box which, while not completely repaired, at least has a new tee boxes to replace those at the foot of the slip and a new buggy track circumnavigating the slip which is a great improvement on the temporary detour across the neighbouring fairway that has been in place for the past year or more.
Berjaya Hills is always a delightful place to be, high in the hills with wonderfully clean air and spectacular vistas. The gallery of Gibbons were very noisy, a bit like American golf galleries, and a magnificent Owl swooped into a tree and watched the LC’s putting exhibition with great disdain before silently gliding away in search of something more interesting.
The winner OCB was Stuart Taylor with 42 points and the runner-up was Ted Parslow.
The lowest gross was 77 by Geoff Parlow and the most golf was played by Allan McNicoll with 118. Stuart is cut 6 strokes and Ted1 stroke.
As I mentioned earlier, there is always a long delay at this track because we believe that we have to start from TB 1 as TB 10 is so far away. The first flight, a 3 ball, were back in under 4 hours with the second 3 ball 10 minutes later. There was then a delay of almost an hour before flight 3 walked off the 18th, 10 minutes of it searching for balls within 150 metrs of the green!!! The last flight came in 90 minutes after the first flight. Maybe we need to bite the bullet and put up with the 10 minute drive to the 10th. But even this will not help unnecessary slow play.
Speed the game up guys.
Poor Bob Simpson was sat at the restaurant for nearly an hour before anyone joined him. He text me with “Where is everone?” followed 45 minutes later with “Am I in the right restauant?”. We had left the changing rooms together! And he was in flight 2!!!! 2 members of flight 1 didn’t stay for lunch and Erol, their 3rd member had to wait for John who was in a later flight and I had to wait for George who was in the last flight. Erol & I had a beer at the 18th to pass the time while waiting for flight 3 to appear.
Anyway, some lessons learned. At venues like this where we adjourn to an off site venue for lunch I will pre arrange the flights. This will help.
Lunch at Restoran 126 in the village was excellent and accompanied by much amber nectar and very reasonably priced.
Despite the delays, a good day out.

Photos

Geoff Parslow, Ted Parslow, John Laidley and Glen Wombwell warming up on the 1st tee. Well not exactly warming up … but Glen is warming his hands!
 Erol Akinci and his “Rusty Pecker” at the 1st tee.
 We thought much of the fairway damage on the course had been caused by wild boar action … but here is proof that Alan McNicoll was also to blame!

Panorama photo of the 4th hole.

 “Stop and smell the flowers” as famously quoted by golfer Walter Hagen. These beautiful flowers had dropped from the trees which surrounded the fairways on the 5th hole.
 Here we see some wild boar damage caused just off the green on the 9th hole.
 The unmistakeable profile of Mr. Richard Moss.
 The Berjaya Hills course has some wonderful views over the surrounding hills and has the advantage of being relatively cool due to the altitude.
 Alan McNicoll blasts one away with this new driver on the 10th hole.
 Richard Moss looking in awe at his drive on the 10th.

Panorama photo of the 10th hole green.
 Richard Moss in the valley of sin on the 12th.
 Geoff McLaws looking happy …. couldn’t say that by the 18th!
 The bizarre Colmar Tropicale buildings nestle in the hills in the distance.
 Another fine swing from Alan McNicoll propels him further forward into triple figures.
The fairly straightforward 16th to lull you into a false sense of security and confidence before the last two holes.
A scarifier machine had been in action on the 17th tee box.
Looking back down the tough 17th hole it’s easy to see where you went wrong.

Video

Audio

Something extra this week to complete your multi-media desires – some recorded sounds of the gibbons in the jungle surrounding the golf course. It sounded like they were all screeching with laughter …. and this was probably exactly the case given the displays of our golf proficiency.

Results – Nilai Springs Golf & Country Club – 28th August 2012

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


Cannons all.
22 LC’s assembled at a very wet Nilai Springs on Tuesday morning to decide the Champion for August.
Over the years we have had few weather disruptions on a Tuesday morning and only one washout; that was many years ago at nearby Staffield, and so sitting in the clubhouse with the rain falling like stair rods from lead grey sky a certain amount of pessimism was gathering. But by 8 o’clock it started to ease up and by 8:20 we were making our way to the tee. Intermittent rain continued through the first 9 but later gave way to pleasant overcast conditions.
Historically Nilai Springs Golf & Country Club is one of the best maintained tracks we play but I’m sorry to report that this was not the case yesterday. In fact the course was in the poorest condition I have seen it for several years. Not bad you understand…..just poor by Nilai Springs standards. However, I’m sure they will get it back into shape fairly quickly. The dry weather in July and early August had dried out the new herring bone drainage that was recently installed and so several of the fairways had strips of brown grass and they needed a hair cut. The greens were slow, mainly because of the early morning rain which prevented them being cut, and the Pines greens had been recently hollow tined, probably just before Ramadan with poor follow up treatment and so they were very uneven and patchy. Not at all what we have become used to at Nilai Springs.
With few other golfers on the course early on we were round in good time with 20 players gathering for lunch in the clubhouse which was up to the expected standard. The only complaint being the extraordinarily long time it took to prepare my fish & chips. I know that Dory is a farmed fish from Vietnam but I had no idea that they actually had to go there to collect it!! 
  
The winner of the August Trophy was Vincent Vijayan with 43 points off the stick plus 3 bonus points for a total of 46. The runner-up was Siegmund  with 41 points.The lowest gross was shared by the 2 Geoff’s; Parslow & McLaws with 81 and the most golf was played by newcomer Allan McNicoll with 122. Vincent is cut 7 strokes and Siegi 1 stroke.



Photos

 Rick Brown may be difficult to recognise when looking at his new fresh-faced look …. but you only need to check out his shorts to confirm that it’s Rick. Mike Smith as always … counting the money.

 A rainy, wet start to the day

 Bob Simpson hits over the water … yes he did get it over.

 Tony Morris takes cover under his umbrella as the rain persists.

 Tony belts one out in his usual quick fashion. As I noted he is usually picking up his tee before his backswing is even complete!

You can’t see the wood for the trees .. in this case I can’t use my wood for the trees! 

Luckily the greens were exceedingly slow otherwise this putt of mine would have rolled past the hole and down the slope towards the water. 

 Richard Moss didn’t make it today …. but he was in our thoughts.

 The buggy tracks were somewhat waterlogged in places
 Bob Simpson’s secret weapon …. The SkyCaddie …. didn’t appear to help him much!

Nearing the end of the round …. thank goodness



A beautiful panorama on the last hole with Tony Morris waiting till the green clears

Video



Results – Kajang Hill Golf & Country Club – 22 August 2012

On By Stuart TaylorIn http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Kajang Hills, Loose CannonsLeave a comment

Cannons all.

This was a sad day. The long awaited axe falls on Kajang Hill Golf & Country Club on the 31st August, or so I was informed by the counter staff, and so this will almost certainly be our last game at this delightful destination. This is a tragedy for Malaysian golfers as Kajang Hill is certainly one of the better tracks we have had the privilege of playing. Opened in the late 90’s, this M. Saito designed course has established a reputation for good management and maintenance and will be sorely missed.

RIP Kajang Hill.
We had 24 players registered but a late withdrawal saw 22 LC’s and one guest; Ian Hughes, son of David, assemble on a clear morning after heavy overnight rain. We got started at 8:15 and with buggies allowed on the fairways which were surprisingly firm, most of us were round in just over 4 hours. The course was in reasonable condition considering it’s imminent demise but the greens were very slow and the bunkers rather hard with little sand. The lakes too were very low which, after the recent heavy downpours, was a little surprising but didn’t make them any less of a hazard. But all-in-all the course was very playable and greatly enjoyed by all.
The winner, paying us a rare visit these days was Ian Geekie with 43 points and the runner-up was Geoff McLaws with 40 points.The lowest gross was Geoff McLaws with 77 and the most golf was played by Richard Moss with 114.
Ian is cut 7 strokes and Geoff 1 stroke.
All 23 of us enjoyed lunch at the clubhouse where the food was excellent and a nice change from last weeks rip off. Plenty of amber nectar was put away and we were only just short of the amount needed for the bill. A whip round of RM10 per head left us with RM85 for the kitty which has been depleted in recent weeks from subsidising some expensive blow outs. We now have RM1192 in hand.
Photos


And finally we have a little “extra” this week with a specially edited video of Flight No 1 in action on the turf, including many useful tips, insights and instructions from these experienced pros ……. enjoy!
//www.youtube.com/get_player
Alternatively you can see the video at better quality on YouTube here:

Results – Glenmarie Golf & Country Club – 14th August 2012

On By Stuart TaylorIn Glenmarie, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Loose Cannons1 Comment

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