It was all Chi Keen's fault

Last Friday, we were at United Square to settle most of the chores for Goofy Cup. We collected the sports bag from Nortel, purchased the lucky draw prizes, then adjourned to Brauhaus for a drink.

Jimmy, Philip, Billy, Chi Keen and I were later joined by Peter. We discussed about the event before our drinking session. As we we partied, I lost count of the number of glasses I downed. Chi Keen keep jioing me to drink, and then I counter-jio him. But he not very steady, once I jio him, he refused to drink giving me no-face so I had to drink his glass as well.

I staggered out at about 2am or 3am (I think..I was pissed drunk), got the valet to drive me back. Today I just read in the papers that the booze-busters were out on Friday night. Smart me.

Woke up at 6.30 am still unsteady, took some bread and popped 2 extra-strong Panadol before heading to SCC. My tee-time was 7.25am with my league team mates. Damn, it was the biggest mistake of my life. Half dead and conned into playing:

1. Sixes (we played 4 since we had spares)
2. Vegas - $2 per point
3. Individual match and stroke play, all round

I probably had the worst round in recent time (+14, +8) including 2 double pars, only woke up at the 14th hole, by then it was too little, too late.

Lost everything! $226. If not for the 4-pars run from Hole 14, the damage would have been more than $300.

It was all Chi Keen's fault!!!

PS : But it was fun! :)

"Lost ball for 10 seconds"

Today, 24th January 2009, I was with playing NSRCC Navy/Army course with the Koh Brothers, Robert & Peter with Albert Teo.

On the 6th hole in the Army course, both Robert's & mine tee shot landed in the bunker with about 110m to green. As the ball is lying nicely in the sand, I used a 9-iron. I thought to myself, I need the take the ball clean. Clean I did, but i pulled it towards the next tee box. Seeing that the front flight is within sight, I shouted "Fore". The ball landed nicely on the tee box without any knowledge form the front flight. They were waiting for the other flight to clear the green before moving to the tee box.

I went to the ball at the tee box and decided to fluff the shot to avoid the bunker between me the pin. Fluff, i did and the ball went towards a leaves portion of a young tree (about 10 ft) but did not come down. I remembered that we spoke of this ruling and Robert as usual came shouting " You cannot shake the sapling" Of course I know that! I was trying to peek upwards to catch a glimpse of my long loyal ball. For about 10 seconds or so, I could not see my ball, and I know Robert will penalise me with "Lost ball" rule. Then suddenly, a gush a wind came, and my ball dropped to the ground. We had a good laugh and for me, it was even more amazing as I have chatted to my golf kakis on this rule on many occasions.

Later in the evening while watching the Golf Channel, during "The Commercialbank Qatar Masters, a player had his sot stuck between the twigs of a scrub plant. He called for the offical and was awarded a free drop under a local rule. He eventually saved par for that hole.

Lesson learned, know your rules or your friendly opponent will take the opportunity to penalise you. Eventually, we had a good laugh at the 19th hole celebrating with 7 jars of the iced-cool beer. Our record was 8 jars. 

PS: I will post a picture which Peter took when I get it from him.

Cheers

Dick

 

5th Goofy Cup Lucky Draw Prizes

We are proud to annouce the fabulous lucky draw prizes that participants of the 5th Goofy Cup can win. They are:

1. Taylormade cart bag worth $139
2. Taylormade standbag worth $99 X 3
3. Sonartec hybrid x 2
3. Taylormade Boston bag x 3
4. Taylormade Rossa putter
5. Taylormade wedge
6. Pride wedge
7. 12 boxes of golf balls
8. 4 x Bluetooth headsets
9. $50 Golfer Network voucher

First league practice session

I have been picked by SCC as a SGA League player for Div A. Today is the first practice session. I had the pleasure of playing with some serious golfer. Yong, the team captain, Koh Hong Soon (Jonas's fellow pro, who also passed the test together with him) and Tham, all are 7-8 handicappers.

Beside the usual 6-es, Koh wanted to play Vegas ($1 per point). Usually I don't play Vegas, but since everybody was so enthusiastic, I was ok as well.

As usual I don't really track my score, just let the experts monitor the betting situation. I shot 78 (7 over) at par 71.

The funny thing about this whole game is that there were a total of 4 birdies in the whole game. All four were against Yong, the captain and Tham was all on the winning team. We did not flip the scores with birdies, but add another $10. And if 2 pars, we add $5.

So in the end, Yong got slaughtered $173, Tham won about $150, I won $37, Koh lost the rest.

It was a very exciting game and I look forward to playing with these guys in the league.

Our Latest Pro - Jonas and his black magic!!!

This is really a good year for Goofy Golf, we now have another Pro within us.

Jonas has just secured his pro license from AMGTF, just like Covette did 3 weeks ago.

Today, the 3 of us, Robert, Chi Keen and myself had the privilege of being the first to play with Jonas since he turned professional.

He scared the daylight out of us by parring the first 3 holes. At the 5th teebox, I wanted to take his picture for this blog post, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for us at least. His tee-shot found water. And from then on, his game started to turn south, much to our delight.

We learn a new trick today. If you want to distract somebody else who is having a solid streak, try asking him to pose for a shot.

Another trick is to put Robert and Jonas on the same flight and same buggy, then you watch the 2 of them go MAD (mutually aided destruction). So naturally, I took their money. Hehe.

My first lesson from the pro- Black Magic on the course. Dancing around the hole, then go "pui pui pui". Trust me....I saw it worked!!!!

SCC SGA league trial

Was called up by the Sembawang CC SGA League Div A captain to go for the selection trial. He went through the handicap listing and shortlisted me.

Yesterday morning was the trial game. I was in the flight with 2 other 8 handicappers and the team captain, Yong.

I did not start very well on the back 9. Bogeyed and double-bogeyed the first 2 holes, but I birdied 12th to settle down a bit. From then onward it was more consistent. Took the turn at 5 over.

The front 9 was more decent with 3 bogies and all pars. I shot 79 (Par 71). Another guys also had a 79 and the 3rd one 86.

One thing that stood out very clearly in the game, I was the shortest hitter. These guys, esp the team captain, was bombing past me by 40m, probably averaging 250-260.

I had a good time chatting with Yong and he remarked that to play well in the league, distance is important, especially in clubs like Tanah Merah, SICC or Laguna Masters, Par-4s of 420m and 430m are not uncommon. I am averaging about 210-220 on my drive so it could be very tough for me.

He also said that in the league games, understanding rules is very important. The other competitors will be looking for infringements. Last year, one of the B Div SCC players was DQ-ed for using a non-conforming driver.

Yong will call for another game to have a look at all the players. Frankly, I am not so keen now. It is a completely different matter when you are playing for the club and when you play for yourself. Letting down the club is something I won't enjoy.

My game today was a complete reversal of New Year Day game at NSRCC, my putting was damn solid today, iron striking not so crisp.

This whole thing set me up with my new year resolution, ie. working on my swing change and increasing my driving distance.

Well, I started this last year.

Lipped-out....not Licked-out!!!

Brand new year and a brand new day.

The first thing in the morning of the new year is to tee-off with my good goofy golf kakis.

In my flight today, is the famous CYM, Philip and Jimmy. Why famous? Well, you just have to look at the preceding blog postings and you will know why. CYM is just too famous. Everybody talks about him.

The frustrating thing about my game today is that I had about 6 lipped-outs (Jimmy called it "licked-out"!!!! My God, what was he thinking of?), my first putts were pretty decent. I missed a 1 m birdie putt!! Damned.

But overall I am still very happy today as I think I had one of the best ball striking round ever.

At Navy 9th, I was regulation on..but my par putt again lipped-out. I then picked up my ball and tried to kick it into the water. Even that I missed!!! CYM then ran and picked up my ball, threatening to take a picture of that ball and post it on this blog, washing my dirty laundry.

In retaliation, I counter-threatened Mr CYM that with his 24-strokes handicap from me, if he cannot take my money, I will write on the blog regarding this record-breaking feat. I don't think I have ever won money giving 24 strokes.

Well, the outcome? It is a secret.

5th Goofy Golf Tournament

The curse at the 6 hole

Four of us - Dick, RK, KBC aka Peter Koh and myself played the Army/Air Force courses on the morning of boxing day Friday 26th Dec. Beautiful weather and great kakis.

The Goofies have the reputation for Naming Rights - Jonas' Tree and CYM's Hole!!! Somehow when I get to the respective tee-boxes I get the feeling, sometimes eerie otherwise a "pulling" aura and sense somehow, something may happen to my tee shot. Believe me it happened that day!

I will call it The Curse of CYM at the 6th hole of Air Force. I have always liked and actually enjoyed playing such holes! (Hee! Hee!) But, blooooody fooool, instead of executing a simple smooth swing from the tee-box, using a tee mind you!, I chopped my shot - yes it was like me --- bloody short!! Ball went into water before the red tee-box and had to buy a jug of beer. (Actually frust but also happy to contribute drink at 19th hole).

Imagine the pulling power of CYM even when he was not there - so, must be The Curse! (He actually swore and cursed that dammed hole so many times that I think his saliva dried up there and saw a few dead worms there too! Such powerful curse).

My partner and I lost that hole and eventually lost the sixes! If only ....... I will try again on Monday 29th - have to make amends and try to rid myself of the curse.

CYM, you too must play that hole again and undo the Curse, otherwise the hole welcomes you everytime you stand on the tee-box! Don't run away, practice many times, you will be perfect. Ha! Ha!

Equally Hilarious Army 6th Hole

This morning at Army 6th hole, we had an incident that got Lee Heng and myself having a good time laughing ... and in part thanks to CYM who wasn't even in the flight :)

Our good friend RK (no names pls but who else!) had a reasonably good 2nd shot approach onto the left side of the green. He approached his ball for his third shot with Lee Heng standing near him. RK on moving backward (apparently after examining the green for his chip) and at the same time talking to Lee Heng, accidentally stepped on his ball making it to move - that's a 1 stroke penalty. Then he kicked his ball apparently to move it back to the original position - that's another 1 stroke penalty. Lee Heng saw all these and told him it's a two stroke penalty. RK initially refused to take the 2 strokes penalty because he claimed to be distracted because he was talking about CYM :) Then he threatened to catch us from then on for any penalty we incurred. All these while, Lee Heng and I were laughing our hearts out! In the end he took the 2 strokes penalty and lost the hole to Lee Heng and squared me. I played terribly today but at least I got to square this hole and have something other than my score to laugh about.

Moral of the story? Don't talk about CYM when he is not around :)