Golf course, this way...

I have had the opportunity to play golf in some great parts of the world on some of the best courses. My favourite experience would have to be playing San Lorenzo, in Portugal’s Algarve, as it had had the prestige of holding the Portuguese Open on a few occasions. I’ve played golf in the middle of the Albert Park F1 Racetrack in Melbourne. I once played a brand new course in Florida with a mate of mine where we teamed up against a couple of cigar-chewing american pilots and showed them that the Brits are ultra competitive and benefit from not laying-up, even when faced with aligator infested water hazzards.....so imagine my surprise when driving the road between tanjung pandang and tanjung tinggi, I saw this sign....

.....this wasn’t here 7 months ago.

It was worth an investigation I thought. Might just turn out to be a cluster of houses with the cluster name “Golf”. Might be a crazy golf course or a couple of pitch and put holes.

Nope...some entreprenneurial local has had the brilliant idea of building a golf course in the middle of a jungle. No pitch-and-putt either, rather it’s a 9-hole course with 5 par-4 holes and 4 par-three holes. Ok, no par-5’s but who knows what they have planned for the future.

This is the view from the first tee and, as you can see, local hazzards include the malaria filled water trap in front, snakes to the left and right and an Indianna Jones style bridge to get to your dive. This is a pretty impressive, first-of-nine, holes.  300 yards, up hill, carrying water. Nice, open fairway but i have no idea of the quality of the greens. I’m guessing slow.

So back up a few minutes....I arrived just as a group of locals were coming off the 9th. One of them asked me if I wanted a drink and when I said a yes, a perfect iced tea appeared in front of me (this wasn’t magic, a waitress brought it). I think, as is usual in Belitung, they wanted pictures with a Bule on their new course and I happily obliged. The golfers, the caddies and I then spoke in broken english and bahasa about golf, Jakarta and, inevitably, David Beckham  so I thought it the right moment to bring up playing a round. Tuesday is my best day as tomorrow I want to visit the lighthouse and this seemed to fit in with everyone else’s plans (lord knows how many people are coming!)I was asked what time and here it got quite comical. I suggested 10am as I didn’t think the heat would bother them (here they were, walking off the course at 1pm). Excellent, everyone agreed at 10......”mungkin jam sembilan?” an indonesian voice in the group suggested, maybe 9am?, ok...9 it is then.....”what about 8?” ok says I, not really wanting to get up that early, but what the hell!!....it now seemed to be turning into a competition as to who could get me to start the earliest including the voice from the back that suggested “Sunday?” which would have meant either extending my stay on the island or going back in time. Giving him the benefit of the doubt I think he joined the conversation late.

Suffice it to say, I’m teeing off at 7am on Tuesday in the extremely unofficial Belitung Open!! (God I want to buy a house here even more than ever now)