Last week it was the girls. This week it's the boys. It's the PGA Tour /Asia Tour co-sanctioned tournament for 40 selected golfers, including a solitary player from Malaysia, being held for 4 days at the Mines Resort Golf Club. Like the international feature at last week ladies' tournament, this week's men's game also drew world class professional golfers, from 13 countries.
The set-up here is different from last week's KLGCC. For one thing, the big, deep lake here is like one very large water hazard that dominates the entire area when compared to all the ponds that seem strewn about to frustrate at KLGGC. Five of the inward nine holes are adjacent to the lake and it can certainly become a factor if the players fail to hit it straight. For another thing, while several holes end up toward the clubhouse in constrict fashion at KLGCC, here the outward and inward nines are like two loops going out and away from the clubhouse and coming back and ending again at the clubhouse. Otherwise the preparation and maintainence of the courses are similiarly spectacular and worthy of the international attention given by the golfing world. As I said before, well prepared international events like these give good exposure to the country. Being the world's leading producer of oil palm is fine, and in fact is probably more substantive to the well-being of the country, but big sporting events are very newsworthy, and we need all the good exposures that we can get.
Unlike at KLGCC, though, this time we posted ourselves at the first par 4 green until the entire field went through. Surprisingly, if my count was correct, there were only 5 birdies, one double bogey, maybe three bogeys and the rest all pars here. Surprising because this is not a long par 4 and except for a strategically placed large angsana almost in the middle and three quarterways to the green, there are no obvious treacheries here. Nobody was put off by the tree, and the three or four who went into the greenside bunker all came out with aplomb. And yet birdies were rare birds indeed.
After the last and currently leading flight went through the first hole, Pak Itam ,who like Tiong Meng last week, is responsible for my being here, and I decided to look for lunch or something. He said let's go to the Sapura kiosk, Sapura being one of the sponsors has a hospitality tent, and Pak Itam said he might be able to get ourselves fixed up. Sure enough, the two girls manning the kiosk were more than happy to oblige. In fact they called over another lady who seemed more senior. She said to follow her, and we ended up inside the expensively laid hospitality tent overlooking the 18th. hole. It was 12.45 and we needed little prompting to dig into the six-star hotel fare. Pak Itam must have been hungry because he filled his plate to overflow and cleaned it up. I was more choosy and started with the expensive-looking cold cuts. Would you believe it; as we were enjoying our free lunch who walked in accompanied by several very attentive ladies but the former Tunku Ampuan Najihah of Negeri Sembilan, and they just sat at the next table.
Pak Itam ordered coffee, but I suggested we disappear before more royalty came, and we left without waiting for the coffee.
To morrow is the fourth and last day of the competition. Ustaz Ahmad invited me at the mosque Friday for a doa selamat at 12 tomorrow at his house just behind mine. I think I'll go to the competition for a short while in the morning, and come back early to go for the doa selamat.
Kill two birds with one stone.
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