Thursday, December 30, 2010

Golf game at Horizon Hills Golf & Country Club Wed 29 Dec 2010

Bobby, our whackiest Goofy, suggested golf games the week of 27 to 31 December 2010. Not only to clear his annual leave but also, trying hard for his "pay back time" as he announced his sudden revival in the game! He did say can play anywhere also even overseas!! So it was Wed 29 Dec off we went to Horizon Hills!

A roll call was done and we gathered 15 Goofies & 1 Goofy wannabe! (CYM's driver for the day!)

After Dick grouped us into 4 flights, Bobby organised meeting points at Playground@Big Splash for those in the East & Green Fairways (GF) for those in Bukit Timah areas. The agreed time was 745am for all to meet and I was impressed that all were punctual! Even the wannabe was early at GF! His vehicle commander CYM came last at GF. The two meeting points was to facilitate travelling by convoy so that we could assemble for a quickie, breakfast, after everyone cleared the checkpoints.


16 of us were transported in 5 cars to the Horizon. From East side, Jiak-Free Goh drove with Ric Tan & Al Teo as passengers, Whacky Bobby drove Kian Boon & Jimmy. Dick drove to GF with RK (popularly aka noisy old exhaust) where Gerald & myself jumped into his car. Billy (recovered from elbow & back injuries),drove Lee Heng (the lucky golfer), Huat Siong (the keen trainee for all overseas outings)& Jonas (our Goofy pro aka Ancient man). And the happy duo CYM with Song Huat (SH) at the wheel.

It was agreed that we would all use the Second Link as it was the fastest route to the Horizon. When we left GF, Billy's group was in sight but where the hell was CYM & SH!!?? We texted the group and the timing was well...almost perfect. CYM texted that they went via BKE/KJE to Tuas! And ... when we were passing Clementi CYM said they wasted 10 minutes! Of course they were OFF course!

Just as we arrived at the Tuas Checkpoint Jiak-Free pulled alongside us & Billy's group with Bobby's group probably 5 minutes behind. We pulled up to the first R&R after crossing JB Checkpoint and there we were...waiting & texting the missing duo. It was 9am and we had to report to the golf registration counter by 930am! We waited for a few minutes until the duo was in sight.

We all missed the quickie breakfast and grabbed some sandwiches at Horizon and teed off about 10am. We had to re-focus all our spent and wasted energies on the screwed up chaps lest it affected our golf game!

The weather was good when we started and we prayed the entire 18 holes would be fine weather. Original booking was at RM155 (nett) for buggy, green & caddy fees with lunch. When we registered there were no caddies available so the fee was reduced to RM134. The local caddy if available would have been RM50!!!

This is the Par 5, 2nd hole, 488m off the blue tees. The rough was deep enough to bury the balls and the fairways were soft in a few spots because of the over night rain and resulted in a few plugged situations! Well once the balls were found and un-plugged the fun continued! Ask Robert he got plugged! Won't you agree the course looks challenging, inviting and giving you the come-on, get me feeling!! The hole doesn't measure that long but the perspective and layout is really very well done!


Look at the fine follow through of Dick, our Goofy Chairman showing the way!
This course only permits buggy on the track and when you are off course and by a long way, I can tell you it is certainly an exercise. At least for me! My legs, body and knees are aching! I understand that the caddies don't even go on course with you! What the hell we don't need them to drive our buggies!!



Look at this treacherous 8th a Par 3 hole 160m. Water all the way on the left side of the fairway and the pin tucked on the left side of the green. Come and get me!!! Very challenging and tempting! Bunkers at the far end of the green waiting to trap errant shots. Well? Easier to lay up? On a Par 3! - you gotta be kidding! So we went for it! Check Fairway Files for the results!!



Gerald - a picture of deep concentration, nice follow through and good balance! He has a new set of irons! It was good timing to catch our 2011 Charity Golf Organising Chairman as he is usually busy but as it was year end it was a little winding down for him! He told me that golf is not a priority nowadays but friends are! Thanks for joining us bro!

By 3pm all of us completed the game and had finger food, ice kachang, a few jugs of beer and after comparing the scores and damage, plenty of money changing hands all round! It was then decided that we should leave immediately for Green Fairways so as not to be caught in any bad traffic!!

Dick's group was the last to leave Horizon. We arrived here using the GPS but there was another one that Robert used in his mobile App. Talk about kiasu! But this time going back, Dick decided to try with the voice activation to hear the sweet gal's voice & slang! After a short while Dick switched it off as Robert was also mimicking his own GPS and that gave us all a headache! Even after Rob's GPS voice was disabled he kept talking!! Remember I said his aka???

At the JB Checkpoint we were side by side to guess who??? The happy duo! After refuelling the tank we arrived at GF! OK no prizes for guessing who's last!!! Of course lah CYM!!

To celebrate Jimmy's birthday and also to fill our tummies we ate at Rain Forest Cafe at GF! Jimmy paid for 2 towers of beer which cost just as much as his score!! 15 of us stayed for dinner as wannabe SH didn't join in. We had yummy food comprising yam basket, lobster tail with truffles in vinaigrette dressing, crab cooked in salted egg yolk, chilli crab, a vege dish, steamed grouper and venison on hot plate. The entire meal cost $550! We were all bloody full and happy after a day of great weather, enjoyed the golf and even better camaraderie of the Goofy brothers!! We look forward to another game overseas, the next one should be a little further!! Yam Seng all!!!