Tuesday, January 4, 2011

27th and 28th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship



 27th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship – Brunei
26-28 October 2010 (Reported by Terence Ng)
(photos from Keok Meng can be seen at facebook:
  36 SSGS members flew into Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), capital of Brunei on 25th October 2010 for the 27th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship. At Changi airport, we almost missed our President, Dato’ Loh Ah Joo, who decided to take the MRT to the airport! But he showed up in plenty of time to catch the plane.

The SQ crew with its usual contingent of pretty stewardesses, kept us plied with drinks and food throughout the two hour flight and we were greeted warmly by the wives and girlfriends of the Bruneian golfers at the airport as well as in the hotel lobby which was particularly appreciated by Richard Seet..

Due to the limited capacity of the Rizqun, the main hotel, the majority of our contingent stayed at the Centre-point but the distance between them was only about ten to fifteen minutes on foot..

Some of the younger ‘seniors’ headed straight to the golf course  while the rest of us played tourist by visiting the many shops in the vicinity and within the main mall. There really was not much to buy and we looked out for more nice restaurants and places for a relaxing foot massage.

 The following day, Tuesday, due to lack of available buggies, the competition was held both in the morning and afternoon. The unfortunates had tp wake up at 5.00am in order to have breakfast and catch  the 6.00am bus to the golf course. To ease the burden, we were told that we would have alternating sessions but it did not  work out for many of us. I, myself had two 5.00am wake up calls in a row-not healthy for a senior.

Two courses were used- the Empire and the Royal Brunei. The first is more of a resort course with wide open fairways but the second was the one that murdered most of us! Meandering fairways, plentiful bunkers, undulating sweeps and thick, thick rough brought many to tears and three figure scores! First time players had to keep their wits about them and play very very safe
The playing field was not even for us. We had submitted our handicap index scores to the organizers but other countries had submitted their course handicaps. This led to us giving away as many as 15 strokes to our opponents over the three days of play! Therefore we did not have a chance even before we hit the first ball.

Hopefully this anomaly will be resolved when the country heads get together early in 2011 to sort out the wrinkles that have befallen the ASEAN Seniors.

Due to early wakeup calls or stretched out afternoon play which led to our team returning to the hotel at 8.00pm, we had the precious little time to see Brunei. Shopping was sparse although some of us brought back a couple of packets of Brunei Krupuk.

For the return trip, we split into two groups, one returning directly to Singapore and the other for an extension trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for an additional four days. We had precious little time to mingle with our Asean golf-mates and the time pressure on all of us was forbidding, especially for seniors. We should have a good look at how we cam make this more of a fellowship activity

 28th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship -2011-Philippines
 The 28th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship will be held in the Philippines in July 2011. SSGS will organize an extended tour after the tournament. We will give the details when finalized. Please keep your diary free for this.
The playing field was not even for us. We had submitted our handicap index scores to the organizers but other countries had submitted their course handicaps. This led to us giving away as many as 15 strokes to our opponents over the three days of play! Therefore we did not have a chance even before we hit the first ball.

Hopefully this anomaly will be resolved when the country heads get together early in 2011 to sort out the wrinkles that have befallen the ASEAN Seniors.

Due to early wakeup calls or stretched out afternoon play which led to our team returning to the hotel at 8.00pm, we had the precious little time to see Brunei. Shopping was sparse although some of us brought back a couple of packets of Brunei Krupuk.

For the return trip, we split into two groups, one returning directly to Singapore and the other for an extension trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for an additional four days. We had precious little time to mingle with our Asean golf-mates and the time pressure on all of us was forbidding, especially for seniors. We should have a good look at how we cam make this more of a fellowship activity

28th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship -2011-Philippines

The 28th ASEAN Senior Amateur Golf Championship will be held in the Philippines in July 2011. SSGS will organize an extended tour after the tournament. We will give the details when finalized. Please keep your diary free for this.
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