Tag Archives: Golf game

Redemption!

7 Jul

Soon after the demoralizing Annual Club Championship golf result, I took a break and went away to play more golf! It’s weird, but going away with some golf buddies helped. Perhaps it is the golf course of choice because I played one game on Tuesday—two days after the annual weekend—at my club’s Hills course and fared just as badly. So it is the golf course! Hahahaha, a fact that I cannot understand.

My golf buddies and I did a mid-week 2D/1N to Seremban and Port Dickson last week. And it was a very enjoyable outing in terms of the golf, company and food. I vaguely remembered the layout of Seremban International Golf Club (SIGC), having played there before in recent years, and played a decent round. But the second game on the second day was redemption!

It’s been a long time since I last played at Port Dickson Golf and Country Club. So familiarity was not on my side, but I took it in stride. My ball striking was crisp, and my putting was exceptional again, with 29 putts.

I returned with a personal best gross score of 91, almost breaking 90!!! It is redemption indeed. I could have broken 90 if not for a three-putt. Oh well, I am happy with the results. It reaffirms I can play good golf. It is not me but the course doing weird things to the mind when the outcome is not what we hope for.

Second to my personal best score, I did not lose a single golf ball for the two games! Typically, at my home course, losing three or four balls for one game is expected, and the score is an eye-popping figure. My home course sucks, in other words! Hahahaha.

I left the outcome as is, taking a real break from golf for the next few days after that fantastic feel-good score, before my next golf adventure.

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Resetting My Problems, Part 2

30 Jun

Guess what? My terrible golf continues – not a whole lot, but enough to demoralize me. As mentioned, I participated in my club’s Annual Club Championship tournament over the weekend. It was a mixed-fortune outing, with an improved score only on the first day; the second day’s outcome unfortunately regressed the overall two-day total. Like I have repeatedly emphasized, the spirit and mind are willing, but the body and ability are not. Sigh.

There were some brilliant moments, but there were more of the opposite that I could not recover from to minimize the damage. The first day’s score had four pars to cover the disasters on several holes. Pars are not to improve the score but to do damage control so that the score does not blow up!

However, on the second day, Lady Luck was not on my side; I could only manage one par. How is this miserly one par enough to minimize the disasters that occurred? We are not even talking about birdies, which were nil, zilch, and nada. 

So many near misses. A typical bogey became a double bogey, a par became a bogey, and worse, a double-bogey hole exploded to become a double par or more! Every hole, there were little mistakes here and there that added up the strokes! The only bright outcome from the experience was my putting. It was my saving Grace from an even higher overall score! Hats off to my caddy, who was of great help in this department for both days.

On the first day, I recorded only 29 putts, very impressive putting overall, I have to say, but alas, the same cannot be said for the other departments of the game. Honestly, it is rather amazing that I improved to 28 putts for the second day; I just took more strokes to get to the green! The irony.

Now that the stress of preparing for the Annual Championship is over, I can heave a sigh of relief. I can feel the tiredness in my bones and joints. Was it worth it? No. I am in more pain than ever! And although I gripe about not being physically fit, I actually played a game this morning, albeit half-heartedly. Sucker. It’s a love-hate relationship for this game called golf.

I will have a physiotherapy session soon to reset my body, and I hope it will help so I can play better golf in my next game.

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Mother Nature-1 Golf Game-0

12 May

We have been experiencing some rough patches of weather lately. As you know, it rains every day, and planning a golf game is difficult. Last week, my friends and I decided to play a morning game, as the pattern seems to be rain and thunderstorms mostly in the afternoons. So, we took a gamble and booked an 8.30 am tee-off at Royal Kampung Kuantan Club.

The drive to the golf course was just under an hour, and we arrived an hour early. It started to drizzle as we got out of the car. Since we arrived early, I decided not to register ahead but wait for the situation to improve. Hah! Wishful thinking.

Water, water everywhere! Same spot, inundated within minutes.
Flooded within a short time

The rain started coming down heavier than ever! Bummer. Pretty soon, the whole golf course became flooded, with the fairways blending into the nearby pond. From the golfer’s terrace, the putting green fared no better. Long story short, we waited for three and a half hours during the downpour. Mother Nature decided it was not a day for any outdoor activities! She goes one up against golf.

Lunch was crabs with mantou, prawns, baby squids, and Lala bee hoon

The rain was relentless! It was too heavy to get to the car, and too early to go off for brunch. Finally, when there was a window, we managed to get to the car and drove to Kuala Selangor for a comforting seafood lunch. It was the least to cap off a washout outing. I think golf needs to take a backseat for the time being until the weather improves.

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Chap Goh Meh 2026

3 Mar

It is Chap Goh Meh today, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, and the celebrations of this festive time are coming to an end. How time flies.

I have to say, the past two weeks didn’t feel festive for me because I felt so out of it. I was merely going through the motions to pass the time. Even the few golf games I played felt so meh. And the weather during this period started wet, then hot, and now unbearably hot. Sigh.

Well, now that the Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year is ending, we are galloping into March, February being a short month. The family had an early Chap Goh Meh dinner two nights ago, and it was a simpler feast compared to the Reunion Dinner spread.

A simpler Chap Goh Meh spread of ‘Poon Choi’ (big bowl feast), Roast Duck, and a Nam Yue Pork.

Separately, we decided on a nice dinner outside tonight to bid adieu to the festivity and hope things will return to normal. Maybe I will play better golf again?

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Putting is Effing Hard

4 Nov

I have played five games so far with my new set of Honma Beres NX irons. And I love them! My ball striking has been effortless, and the ball trajectory has been very high and far. I am getting better distances and control. The irons complement my current driver, woods, and hybrid clubs, and I should be playing better.

All my equipment is excellent—except for two things: one being the persistent cough that slows me down and leaves me breathless. And two, being my putting. It sucks! I switched to my TaylorMade Spider Mini not too long ago, after some disastrous putting with the Scotty. And you know what? Bad decision to switch!

In the last two games with the Mini, I did 37 putts each time! Thirty seven-effing putts. Man, that’s like six to seven additional strokes unnecessarily. The second-to-last round was the last straw, where I had three three-putts and two four-putts! I couldn’t get over this. Just two days earlier, I had three putts on five holes. Argh!

When I got home, the first thing I did was remove the TaylorMade Spider Mini and put back my Scotty Cameron in the bag. And sure enough, the last game back with the Scotty, I fared better. My next game is coming up on Thursday; let’s hope the improvement trend continues.

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July Interclub Down South

15 Jul

The Interclub trip down South over the weekend came and went by in a blink. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning is not something I wish to do often, but it was necessary, as everyone had to meet at the club to depart by six o’clock in two buses.

Although there were 60 players, some chose to drive instead. The journey was comfortable with fewer people on board, and traffic was manageable along the highway. Despite taking a couple of wrong exits, our group arrived on time.

Our first Interclub match was against Ponderosa Golf and Country Club. After the welcome lunch, the shotgun start matches began. It was a good fight, but our club lost out with a score of 13.5 points versus 16.5 points. However, Ponderosa, being a gracious host, declared everyone a winner! The losing team players received silver medals, while the champion host team members collected their gold medals. What a friendly way to build friendship in a golf tournament.

The next day, the entourage traveled to Singapore via Woodlands to visit the Keppel Club for our second Interclub game. The format of play was a bit different, which initially left everyone confused. It turned out to be a team event; our players were paired with the opponents, meaning we were playing with them rather than against them. The team with the best ball score for Stableford points will be declared the winner.

Keppel Club is not an easy course to play. It may look short, but the distances to the pins were deceiving, especially with the undulating terrain. I felt so drained after the game despite the cool and cloudy weather. The early confusion on the game format aside, I would say everyone left Keppel feeling satisfied and happy.

On the final day, we had a casual game amongst ourselves at Palm Resort Golf & Country Club (Cempaka course), which was not an Interclub match. I played with my regular group, and it was quite an enjoyable round of dueling to see who would end up contributing less money for lunch! Hahahaha.

I’m just glad to be home after the hectic and tight schedule for three rounds of golf.

Keppel Club with a glaring OB spelled out guarding the Par 3; approaching Woodlands on the Causeway, and sights of the other golf courses.

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Bragging Rights

10 Jun

Hubby was not keen to play golf on Sunday morning after a gruesome pickleball session the day before, but he went. And I’m so glad he did because he achieved a hole-in-one!!! Wheeeeeee.

After dinosaur years at the sports, the elusive glory is finally his, along with all the bragging rights. No further words are necessary as the celebration and drinks were non-stop after that.

Have I aced a hole before? No, and I am still waiting for mine, although I can proudly say I had an eagle achievement two years ago on a Par 4. Congratulations, hubby dearest. I hope my turn to achieve this and have the same bragging rights will arrive sooner.

The HIO achiever!

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A Lovely Gift

13 May

Mother’s Day is always a family affair, celebrating the three mothers in the family on Sunday – Mom, myself, and my sister-in-law. A sumptuous lunch and fun jabber to catch up with everyone.

This year, I received a lovely gift. It’s been almost two years since I last worked on building miniatures, and this gift is the perfect one to kickstart this activity again.

Project number 32 was the last miniature I worked on from October 2023, but sadly, I never completed it. I had golf, travel, and games on the iPad Mini, keeping me busy. At this point, I’m not sure if I can complete the set because it’s too tiny.

Anyway, maybe it’s long overdue to spend time building miniatures again. And of late, my golf sucks, and I find no joy in playing, so the timing is just nice to go back to doing things that gave me so much joy.

My Mother’s Day gift. Love it!

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Back to Golf!

6 May

It’s been a month since I last played golf! That’s a long layoff in my books. The trip to China took nine days; upon my return, I fell sick. And it’s taking a long time to recover from this bout of illness. It’s a potent germ from China. The plus side is that I lost some weight, which is nice because it’s so hard to shed a pound or two these days.

Exactly a month on, I played my first game today. How did I fare? There was some rustiness in swinging the clubs. The short game was horrid, but my putting was good, thanks to the ever-reliable Scotty Cameron putter.

All in all, it was a decent return. The tee-offs were respectable and even spectacular at times. But this could be the fairways being so hard, and the ball was able to roll some additional distance. The three- and five-woods were striking well, but it was the short irons that I had trouble.

Such is usually the case with a month’s layoff. All muscle memories are gone when gauging strength and distance. So I shouldn’t stress over this issue. I need to play more to get back my golf mojo, then I will be fine.

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Misaligned and Realigned

8 Apr

Recently, I’ve been experiencing loud cracking and popping in my left foot, especially when I wake up and move. It gets worse as I try to stretch out the kinks. Something is not right with my body. This morning pattern has been ongoing for several weeks and is annoying, especially when I want to be quiet; the cracking noise gives me away!

Deciding to take action, I visited my regular physiotherapist. The diagnosis revealed that my issue stemmed from improper walking due to my knee. I suspect from navigating the undulating terrains of the golf course whenever my ball does not land on the flat fairways, causing muscle stress, misalignment, and bone-cracking—quite a complex set of problems for the left leg! I even learned a new term for my problem: crepitus.

During the treatment, I was stretched, pulled, and kneaded for an hour or so. I could feel the difference after the session. My misalignment is gone! Phew. I can’t help but wonder if this problem has contributed to my recent struggles in my golf game. Hmm, the possibility looks that way.

I hope to play better golf as my misalignment problems are resolved. I don’t expect an immediate improvement in my game yet, as I’m still trying to get back into the groove, but being realigned and not having any pain while golfing is already a win.

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