28. Hong Kong GC, Sentosa GC (Serapong), and Els Club Teluk Datai January 17-20

Hong Kong GC, Sentosa GC (Serapong), and Els Club Teluk Datai January 17-20

Hong Kong GC January 18:  Aside from a workout in the hotel gym, did nothing all day…just hung out in room, updated Blog, (have to keep you folks happy), but mostly just slept…which was just what this old body needed.  Sunday evening, had a wonderful Chinese dinner with Ron XXXX (names always kept confidential to keep them form receiving request for contacts and games, etc) and his wife, Stella, as well as David and Juliana XXXX.  Ron is the former president of a worldwide senior golf association we joined 2 years ago, studied architecture in graduate school at MIT, and runs a large architectural firm in Hong Kong.  He had introduced me to David over a year ago…David was three years behind me at MIT, but did not know each other then. 

The next morning, Ron and I were joined by Ed XXXX for 18 holes at Hong Kong GC’s Eden Course.  HKGC (formerly Royal Hong Kong GC) was founded about 125 years ago and now has three 18 hole courses…Eden, Old and New.  It had been the host of the Honk Kong Open for decades (most recently won by Justin Rose last October) which is contested on a Composite Course, and it is that Composite Course that was included on Golf Magazine’s first World Top 50 lists published in 1979 and ’81.  Other World 100 courses are Royal Melbourne and The Country Club, and for good and valid reasons, almost all publishers of Top 100 listing now prohibit the inclusion of composites.  Since these are usually available for play only a few days each year, it becomes impossible for panelists to rate composites.

I played HKGC’s Old Course in 1974 and its New Course in 1980 (both when it was still Royal Hong Kong) but had never played Eden….which generally has had 9-11 of the Composite holes, and needed to play it to make this “played” designation fully kosher.

Ron and I were joined by Ed XXXX who had been very helpful over the past two years getting me on to Wack Wack GC in Manila.  Ed worked for Citibank in the 1970’s (and later) first in Manila, and then elsewhere in SE Asia…so we had a good chance to trade war stories (all certified to have not one ounce of exaggeration) about the old days at Citi. 

The Eden Course is great fun.  The green complexes are well designed and well bunkered, and the property is fairly hilly and flat lies are a luxury on fairways filled with wonderful rolls and bumps.  The best holes are #5, 6, 9, and 15-18.  The course is very short but absolutely fun to play…the kind of course one could play every day.  And the club is simply superb and maintains its British traditions (even if it did drop the Royal designation at the time of the turnover).  This is not at all like most of the new courses in China and Asia.  No “over the top” sense on this property.

When I first played RHKGC on its Old Course almost 42 years ago, I remember some one pointing out where the property was a few yards from the barrier separating the New Territories of Hong Kong from the PRC (“Mainland China”).  As you stand on the 5^th tee of Eden (a superb short downhill par 3), Shenzhen lies about 2 miles to the north (see picture below).  This city did not exist in 1974 and now is home to about 11 million people and is a modern, bustling city, filled with skyscrapers and can be seen in the background of the picture below of Ron and me.  Simply amazing.

We enjoyed a superb lunch after the round and Ron dropped me off at the airport on my way to Singapore.  Funny how things work…if I had played Eden during one of my earlier trips to Hong Kong, I probably would not have made this stop on this trip.  Glad things worked out as they did!

Sentosa GC—Serapong, Singapore January 19, 2016:  The 4-hour flight to Singapore was smooth, and I arrived at my hotel around 8pm.  Tee off is at 7:07am the next day, as I need to catch a flight at 3:25pm.  A whole bunch of short haul flights these next 3-4 days.  Forecast for Tuesday calls for T-storms starting around 11am, so need to get a little lucky.  Flying from Hong Kong to Singapore is the opposite of  “out of the frying pan and into the fire” as far as I am concerned…they are two of my favorite cities in the world.  Some of you will recall that I was in Singapore in early November to play Singapore Island’s Bukit course…at that time Sentosa had not made a World 100 (more on this later) and was not on my radar as a high potential candidate, so I did not play it.

My hotel is about 200 yards from the course and will allow a late checkout, which should make Tuesday simpler.

Got to the club around 6:30am, had my breakfast (Fiber One of course) and met my playing partner, John, a 62 year old Singaporean who is semi retired from running a large food processing business and took up golf several years ago.  John usually plays as a single first thing each morning with his regular caddy and loves the beautiful solitude of a fine golf course…and Serapong is better than that.  We shared golf war stories and enjoyed a quick front nine. 

Then when we hit #10, the course was backed up as groups had been sent off both the 1^st and 10^th tees.  It very quickly became apparent that my ability to play all 18 might be in jeopardy (also, John had a meeting at 11:30 which was at risk as well).  Quickly sizing up the situation, I notice as we finished #10 that #11 was backed up, but that #18 was free and was right next to #10.  So I played #10, then #18 alone and quickly, then raced to the 11^th tee to rejoin John for #11 and  #12.  When we got backed up again at #13, the starter was there (I think John called him…cell phones are used more frequently than tees on Asian courses) to shepherd us to #16, where we quickly played #16 and #17.  Then John had to run, and I went to #13 and played #13-#15.  The above is a long winded way of saying I got to play the entire back nine but a bit out of order.

Now to some substance.  The course was in fabulous shape, in part because it is hosting the Singapore Open (a Euro Tour event) in about 12 days.  Those of you who have been there know that Singapore is very close to the Equator, is continuously hot and humid , and gets a LOT of rain all year long (their rainy season lasts 366 days this year).  Despite that, the fairways were fairly firm and otherwise in absolutely perfect shape.  The greens were a touch soft (my guess is that rolling them for the event should solve that) but pretty fast and perfectly true.  The course is long (over 7400 yards at sea level and probably plays to par 70 for the Open).  It first made a World Top 100 2-3 weeks ago when Golf Digest announced their 2016 list.  I must admit to being skeptical about this selection when I saw it (#58), but was very pleasantly surprised.  My overall sense is that it does belong in a World 100…but I would place it around #75-100.  Its greens are generally very large and challenging.  The course is Open with great vistas of downtown Singapore and its commercial docks….really a cool setting.

Finished my round by about 10:40, and then raced to the hotel, as I learned that my flight had been cancelled.  There were other flights, but I was flying back to Kuala Lumpur to make a connection and did not want that connection to be too tight…so now it was a race to catch a 1:40 flight (and shower and finalize packing as well).  Got it all done and made the 1:40. 

The Els Club Teluk Datai, Malaysia, January 20, 2016:  When the Golf Digest list came out, there were two “surprise” course in Asia…Sentosa (which I had sort of heard of), and The Els Club in Malaysia (which I had never heard of).  The Els Club is located near Langkawi, Malaysia, on island just off  its western coast and just below its northern border with Thailand.  This area is “quintessential” south pacific/Southeast Asia.  Beautiful beaches, high mountains rising almost straight out of the sea and covered with deep thick vegetation, etc. etc.  It reminded me if the opening scenes from the original King Kong movie.  It is an out of the way resort, and for sure I set a record with this trip, being the first person to come here for less than 24 hours and alone!!  Pat would have loved this place (but perhaps not loved the flights on the way).

The next morning I was on the road before sunrise for the 30 minute drive to the Club.

The place looks beautiful.   They offered me locker #3 for the day…about 2 feet left of Ernie’s as shown below:

The Els Club is a par 72 totaling 6760 yards, surprisingly short in today’s golf world.  Like Sentosa, it was included in its first World 100 earlier this month by Golf Digest.

I got off the first tee just after 7am, and after playing the first two holes noted something very strange...neither hole had any bunkers.  When I arrived at the par 3 third tee…same thing, no bunkers.  Despite being a little tired for my travels, I got to thinking and concluded this might be a trend.  Sure enough, ain’t no bunkers on the entire course.  A number of the holes incorporate very good angles, but on others, there is little or no protection. 

Holes 1-4 worked through the forest and then 5-8 have either greens or tees near the water.  #9-15 are again in the forest, as is #18…but 16 is a spectacular dogleg right which opens up to the water after the turn…it is a sight to behold, then 17 is a short par 3 along the waters edge.  Below are pictures of some of these holes.

Par 3 Fifth Hole at Els

                       Par 5 7th hole at Els--approach shot

                                                    Tee shot on 18th at Els

While the course has a few good holes, and certainly is “different” given it has no bunkers, those are not World 100 qualities.  I hate to say this but the fact is that my locker is much much closer to Ernie’s than The Els Club is to being a World Top 100.  Pretty, but that ain’t enough.  Hopefully neither Ernie nor King Kong will come after me for that assessment.