Welcome, all to the November Edition of your favourite organ.
As always… a weather update. It is damn hot! Last month we celebrated “No Shadow Day” which of course occurs when the sun is directly overhead around noon. And I can tell you, if you are out on the course and unlucky enough to be in one of those pockets with no breeze (like the 16th green), it is very hot indeed. Fortunately, at New Kuta we are almost always blessed by breezes and it is just fine most of the time.
As I write, there are signs abounding of the approaching Monsoon season, which should provide us with welcome cloud cover, however, the frequent overnight rains the monsoons will bring adds that special sauna effect to add a challenge.
(In looking for this picture, I Googled “images hot golf”. I was somewhat surprised by the selection Mr Google offered)
We have had the usual parade of regulars at our many events this past month, and the very welcome participation of our overseas members, and are all enjoying being under the same handicapping umbrella, Raffles being an “honorary” Australian Club.
Maybe the happiest event in October was the hopefully-annual-hereafter New Kuta Staff Appreciation Day, an initiative of Board Member Tony Brandenburg. The event was very well attended – by Raffles members, NK management, and the recipients of our appreciation, the hard-working ground staff, bar servers and of course our caddies. A good time was had by all, loot collected, and a wonderful sense of well-being by all participants.
President’s Report
Dear Fellow Members,
Well, here we are already – the beginning of November. I must say from a golfing point of view it is already probably the best year since the inception of our Club some 10 years ago.
The end of next month will see the end, for the first time, of both the end of the calendar year and the end of our financial year at the same time.
For the first time, elections will be held in February/March with our constitution requiring them to be held by the end of March. We will advise you soon the date for the AGM, and I urge you to make time to attend. Four members of the present Board, including Mike Barber (our Captain) and myself, will be required to stand for re-election. These elections take place of course at the time of our AGM. Now is the time to consider standing for office with a view to doing your bit for the Club. We need people; and a mixture of non-resident Bali candidates as well as resident candidates. It would, of course, be great to see our female members represented on the Board
Anyway, enough of this serious stuff. The Captain v Chairman battle looms! It is on the 1st of December and it is the first of what is to become an annual slaughter of the Captain’s team by the Chairman’s team. Caps will be given to all participants in different colours. Given the nature of the President’s team ours will be pure white and given the nature of the Captain’s team theirs will be dirty black! If you haven’t registered please do so now. Unfortunately, you cannot choose which team you will be playing for because that would mean that the Captain’s team wouldn’t be able to field a team so it would be grossly unfair. Team selection will be a fair one based on handicap sorted out by our Administrator, Peter Manz. It is going to be a great day! Register now.
Until next month, enjoy your golf.
Robert Nelson
Club President
Captain’s Corner
By the numbers – from A to Z – and the poison chalice
Golf is clearly one of the few sports that can claim to be truly global. 209 of the 249 countries making up this planet boast at least one golf course. That extends from Antarctica to Zimbabwe ! The thought of an early tee time in Antarctica, or Greenland for that matter, doesn’t really appeal – I’m not sure the Balinese caddies would cope too well , but at least the Bintangs would be cold !
According to the R&A there’s approximately 39,000 courses around the world – USA leading the way with nearly 43% of that total. Closer to home, in SE Asia, the country that seems to be pushing to become the key golf destination is Vietnam, with 78 courses currently in operation and another 43 in various stages of development – having Greg Norman as their public face of tourism is obviously no coincidence.
Sue and I went to Vietnam a few years back and played, among others, The Bluffs at Ho Tram – miles away from anywhere (apart from a casino !) but a damn fine test of golf , and incidentally, a Greg Norman designed course. I thoroughly recommend anyone thinking of exploring Vietnam beyond the courses in Da Nang consider making the trek to Ho Tram.
This leads me to wondering whether golf in Indonesia in general, and Bali in particular, has similarly bullish plans for the future. Land availability and hence price would seem to be a rapidly increasing problem – perhaps with the new airport plans in Singaraja new opportunities may arise north of the Bukit.
Being nominated as Captain for anything to do with Raffles is not without its hazards seemingly. As club captain I had to have a joint fusion in one hand earlier this year – making golf a bit tricky I might add – our Asia Cup captain Tim Schramm tore his bicep off the bone recently (ouch!) and our Handara team captain Barry Lyon managed to fall down a pothole breaking his foot last week ! Ron Fletcher has stepped up to fill Baz’s shoes for the Handara event next week – thanks and stay safe Ron !!!
Until next month….
Good golfing
Mike Barber – Captain
Jenggala Monthly Medal
October’s Monthly Medal was very well attended, with 33 members striving for boasting rights and the 
Jenggala plate. Eventual winner with a very well constructed nett 68 was our runaway Player of the Month, Steve Viles. Hailing from C Grade (only temporarily, as it later transpired), was a one-shot winner from Mark Walker on 69, who subsequently took out the consolation prize of B Grade winner.
Raven Dunk (70) headed A Grade ahead of Tony Brandenburg (71), Mark was followed very closely by Darren Casson (69) in B Grade, and runner-up in Steve’s C Grade was a hard working Elmer Kupper (71).
Well done, Steve.
Best Gross was our best golfer, Alan Legg, with an easy 75
Member’s Trophy Day, October
Board Member Hugh Brown took his annual turn as donor in the Member’s Trophy Day on October 6, and with some fine bottles of New Zealand wines on offer, the thirstiest were out in their droves.
In-form Elmer Kupper turned in an excellent 3-up, as did Paul Campbell, however these were not good enough to match a fine score of 5-up by frequent podium person Harumi Hashimoto, who hoovered up the loot and added it to her growing collection of Raffles trophies.
Well done that girl!
Player of the Month
Runaway winner this month was our Monthly Medalist Steve Viles, who played consistently well all month and amassed 27 Points. A distant but creditable second was Elmer Kupper, pressed until the end by the very consistently good David Kirkwood
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