On Saturday, January 23rd,
we went golfing at the Palm Springs Golf and Beach resort located on the
The trip to Batam is by fast boat. The Ocean Raider is about a 60 foot long boat that made 25 knots. The trip took about an half an hour, Batam being quite a bit closer than Bintan. A great advantage of this fast boat is that we could sit outside on the top deck and the weather was just glorious with the wind blowing in our hair … sun, blue skies, yet quite cool and dry … somewhat unusual for this neck of the woods.
Click on any picture to see a larger image.
A picture of the Ocean Raider, followed by
For those of you with a nautical mind, this boat is powered by large twin diesels with an Arneson drive for a final propulsion system. Arneson props are halfway out of the water, making for interesting rooster tails. And at 25 knots, the boat leaves quite a wake.
I shot a few pictures on the way out across the straits to Batam, including freighters and the
The next shots are pictures of our arrival at the Batam ferry terminal… a great piece of architecture. These guys look like they are ready for golf, no?
The Palm Springs Golf Resort is a very nice place. For about S$130 (US $78) each, we got the fast boat ride, green fees, carts, two caddies, buffet lunch, and use of the shower and dressing room facilities.
Here are a few shots taken during our game. John gets ready to drive the cart, a shot from the first tee, a picture of Wayne and Steve, a picture of our caddies, Mohammed and Agul, and a picture of the water holes taken from the boat.
And as life turned
out, there were only 3 of us, and we had no following flight, not close anyway,
so we played a game instead of scramble.
We had two carts and two caddies, and at first I wondered just why we
needed the caddies. However, they turned
out to be very useful and helpful. Mohammed
and Agul are accomplished golfers in their own right;
one plays with a handicap of 10, the other 14… and I think he was lying just to
be nice. They were very good at club selection, and would bring your clubs to you
from the cart. As a result we walked a
lot more, which was good, as the caddies would move the carts up after bringing
a club.
I was fortunate to
be able to play a scoring game. John and
Steve are both much better players, particularly Steve. However, Steve had just returned the night
before from a five day trip to the
I scored a 130 on a
par 72 course, not really great. On the
other hand, I made par on a 3 and 4, and I had a birdie on a short 3 par that
was a shot over water to the green. Hit
onto the green on my first shot, then sank a 20 foot put. Great.
I had only two drops… a wicked slice put my ball well into the center on
a decent size lake on one tee shot, and a shot from the fairway sent my ball
into the jungle (we saw a monkey run away as one of my (unnamed) partners went
looking for his ball). And if you take
out my three really bad holes (17, 11, and 10), most of my other shots were two
or three over par. The lessons have
really helped… just taken two so far but I’ve found the problem with my swing
and when I do it right, I play damn good golf.
Like the last hole, the 18th… 300 meters to the hole… two to
get on, and a two put for par… on a fairly tough hole. Afterwards, it was time for lunch and a
shower. I’ve got two more lessons this
week (on full swing and power shots) and then back out to Batam
next weekend for another round of golf.
After our golf game, we had a buffet lunch at the golf
resort restaurant and then a shower.
What a great way to end a day of golf.
A boat ride back to
