Rain, Slice, OB, Longest Drive

As you know, I played the Nongsa Cup Tournament at Batam over the weekend.

Just as we were about to start the first round at Palm Springs, the clouds rolled in and threatened. As we teed off (incidentally, on the hole 8th hole on Island, marked for the longest drive prize for the day...which we were never going to get, considering that this would be our FIRST drive of the day).

As we teed off, the clouds made good on their threat and rain crashed down with a vengence. Surprisingly, I made par on the first two holes, that too recovering from fairly attrocious tee offs. I attribute that to dry grips and a dry glove!

On the next hole, I should have realized that luck was not going to be in my favour that round when a very nice driver shot took a nasty sideways bounce and landed on the downslope of a water hazard. Just getting the ball over the hole and then onto a green surrounded by really deep bunkers cost me a few strokes and I posted double bogey.

And then came a lovely birdie. A fairly long putt after hitting the green (nowhere close to the closest to pin spot).

After that, it was all downhill. By this time, my glove had become soaking wet, the grips slippery and the rain torrential. So to avoid the club from slipping from my hands, I held on tighter than I normally do and promptly started slicing the ball Nor-Nor-East when I want it to go due West. OB and lost ball! The next two holes (a par 5 and a par 4) had the exact same scenario and the exact same results as well.

That, and a few more disasters, helped me post a monster 52 as my 9 hole score!

On the come back, I shot 5 pars, 3 double bogeys and a double par! Three more balls were lost on this nine (I dont need to tell you on which holes...you can figure them out). Oh, and to make matters worse, I four putted one of the disaster holes and three putted another. This was clearly not working for me.

So I came back with a soaking body and a soaking score card to match...having posted a 99 on this God forsaken day. The only upside to this was the possibility of a rain free game and the hope that this was the worst that I could do.

So after partial attempts to dry the footwear (with a hair dryer for 20 minutes), I teed off (this time at Tering Bay for the second round) at again one of the most difficult holes...the par 3 seventh which has so many bunkers around it that you feel you're playing in a desert. And as I like to make things difficult for myself, I promptly landed inside one and did myself no favours by taking 2 strokes to get out of there.

This time round, it was clearly the putting that was lacking. Too many GIRs and then 3putts. Too many times landing on the fairway and then landing short. I took 35 putts to finish my round of 89 (a marked inprovement over yesterday, but good enough).

The only bright side to this whole effort? My drive on the 10th hole at Tering Bay. This hole was being used to judge the Longest drive off the tee. If you haven't played this hole, it is a longish par 4 with a fairly wide fairway and a bunker at the left side of the fairway, around 250 yards from the tee, to threaten your drive.

As we stood on the tee, we could see that someone had already put a flag there, level with the bunker, as the longest drive candidate. I was the last to drive off and hit a screamer!

The ball went dead straight and went over the previous maker on the fly, going another 30 yards after it landed. I would estimate my drive at around 290yards, which could have been longer had it not been the fact that it came up against an upslope. So the marker went up there with my name on it. And it stayed there...cause I won a small crystal trophy for the longest drive for the second round of the tournament!

Cool, huh?

The tournament was won by some show off who shot an 8 over round in the rain (with some 7 birdies!....I want to know who his marker was!) and then shot a two over for the second round to shoot a gross score of 154! Hideous, isn't it?

So all in all, a few terrible rounds, but a trophy to keep in my living room!

I can live with that!