Golf. Pt. 3

3.5.2008.

I'll jump a bit to-day to golf pt. 3, before I forget to write about what happened at the club this morning. Lee Hon Seong asked about my blog last week, and has found it. This morning we met at the club, and he said to write some more about Wang Hak Tam ( I call him Wang hantam because he always hantam the wang ).

By the way, talking about parents giving their offsprings names without due consideration about future embarassment, Wang hantam has a brother called Wang Fak Yu. I cannot imagine how he went through life with that monicker. Maybe in Malaysia it's not too bad   ( though I doubt it ). If he, say, studied in the US or UK, my god ! Going back to Lee, and I must quote him, otherwise Wang hantam will come after me, he said Wang hantam used to roll the golf ball around on the ground before hitting it, under the pretext of checking whose ball it is. In the process, of course, the ball gets to sit pretty for better contact. No wonder Wang hantam has been hantamming the wang ! 

This morning one of the senior golfers who went to A'famosa on Wednesday refused to acknowledge my good morning greeting. I think I know why. Yesterday as I was waiting for my "kakis" to tee-off, I overheard him saying to another golfer nearby that he won a prize. I naughtily interjected the he shouldn't have won because someone saw him move his ball. He got annoyed and shouted to me "rubbish, bullshit!". I was only saying it in jest, and he knows it. But if he was really angry, then I might have struck at something sensitive. 

This getting angry over tongue-in-cheek comments by me by a few senior golfers has become a puzzlement for me. It's not as if I've just joined the senior golfers, and they are not familiar with me. Those who know me better will know that I have a good sense of humour, and my comments shouldn't be taken too seriously. Perhaps I shouldn't shoot off my mouth so carelessly. But I'm not about to change, I'm too old to change. I guess I'll just adopt the attitude - "those who matter won't mind, those who mind won't matter".

Normally we play "3-1-1". That means 3 balls for the game, 1 ball "insurance", and 1 ball "buy".The monetary value can be RM 1, 2, 5 or even 10 per ball. That means if you play RM 5 per ball, you can lose a maximun " full house" of 5 balls for a total of RM 5 x 5 balls = RM 25. Mostly these people play for RM 1 per ball, and I think this is better. The most you can lose over 9 holes in a flight of 4 would be 5 balls x 3 persons = RM 15. But you can't lose to everybody, and certainly not "full house", so normally you would lose around RM 5, which is OK. 

The trouble starts when you play for serious money, like RM 10 per ball, with multiple frames and "all fringes" (usually worth 1/2 ball), "double-up on the buy", and double up on "losers option" for the second nine. If, say, you lose "single frame" with no "fringes" to all the other 3 "full house" in the first 9, you would lose a total of RM 150. If you played 2 frames with the same results, plus, say 2 fringes, you would lose RM 310. If you "double-up" the second 9 with the same results, you will end up the full 18 holes RM 930 poorer !

Some people start at RM 20 per ball, and triple up the second 9 ! This is when the cheating starts, when friends become enemies, sadly. I don't play for such big sums, simply because I can't afford it. But I have played for RM 5 per ball quite often, since this is an acceptible rate for the more serious golfers. Even at this rate, spotting my opponents sometimes as many as 8 strokes for 18 holes   ( a discount of almost 45% in terms of strokes given), I have lost a few friends. These are, to me, sore losers who should have known better than to just add the odds on themselves when playing with me, knowing full well the vagaries of the game, and more than that, their own mental strengths. 

You see, I'm a late comer to golf. I only got my handicap at the age of 43. But through the years, I taught myself with the help of books, magazines and later cds, and became aware of the mental side of the game. When I play, I know that I'm playing against the course, not the other golfers in my flight. Because golf came late for me, I am mature enough to realise that only the correct analysis of the way that I play can help me play as well as I possibly can. For instance, I have accepted the fact that I can't drive it 240 meters, and that the long irons are difficult. I also know that putting is almost 40% of all the strokes in a round of golf. So what have I done ? I bought a high tech. forgiving driver, replaced all my long irons with woods and hybrids, and practice, practice, practice my chipping and putting.

Where you can buy technology, you buy technology, because you sure as hell can't buy skill.I'm proud to say that at 63, on a good day I can still break 80, no problem ! Now, as an added measure, I try to visualise my target rather than think of the number to shoot. In golf, the target is the hole, not how many strokes you'd like to make per hole. 

So, Wang hantam, and Lee, or Ng the Voice ( Ng is the lawyer with a distinctive voice that no high court judge can mistake) if you read this, think twice before you challange me to a round of golf. For you information, my S-yard driver, my hybrids and both pairs of Nike shoes were paid for by my victims. Ha, ha.

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