Ramah Rag Q4 2022

Welcome to another edition of your favourite Organ

Last time we met here (so to speak) we had finally reopened Bali after two long years of isolation and were seeing a slow but steady increase in intrepid travelers nervously pioneering adventurous trips to Bali.

I was delighted to observe that trickle of tourists increase to a stream, then a small river, and eventually not exactly a torrent in full flood, but a semblance of its pre-Covid self. Our restaurants and bars having been welcoming back old friends in increasing numbers, tour companies and hotels filling up, and happily our golf courses are filling with visitors eager for a taste of tropical golfing challenges. (See photo Right for “tropical golfing challenge”)

Ramah has been truly blessed by the solid return of our members previously exiled from us, and boy, have we been happy to see them back with us! Our Octoberfest of golf was a roaring success and saw many of you out on parole from your homelands joining with us again. Amongst those returning have been Cory Fuller, Rob Scott, Terry Durkin, Kevin Tilka and a host of others, but perhaps most pleasingly our favourite Chef Thomas Linane and his partner-in-everything Mel Lange. Thomas was severely laid low by Covid, but is significantly improved and delighted us all by his return!

This reawakening is a two-edged sword, of course, as we have seen a very strong increase in corporate events at our courses, putting stress on our golf courses’ facilities, manpower and maintenance, and of course our traffic tribulations increased accordingly.

Biden, Albanese, Macron, Xi et al seemed to manage well enough during G20, safely ensconced in their Nusa Dua electric-car enclave, but it was a bit trying for the rest of us (especially those who actually live in Nusa Dua!).

So… those of you yet to give in to the siren-call of Bali need to get organised and get yourselves up here to join with us again. And speaking of which… May Golf Week should be back to full-strength this time, and will be an excellent time for you all to give in to the lure of the place. More of that in Captain Alan’s report coming up.

Captain’s Corner

Welcome back to my 2nd attempt at the Ramah Rag. Each week in the Weekly Ops report I provide updates on our Weekly golfing activities and also some key items of note for Ramah Members. This being the case I include summary activities and pictures, for those that missed the weekly reports, rather than repeating the detail of that which is already published.

Since our last Rag we had a very successful October Fest with 30 members up from Australia to join in the activities. For some of the events we had over 70 players so a great turn out for our first, and probably not last October Fest.

October Golf Fest started with the Monthly Medal and the Winner of the Day was Terry Durkin with an excellent Nett 66 just beating Pete Manz on countback for the honours. Terry receiving his Medal from Amanah and Malcolm.

Terry also received a bottle of wine and a New Kuta Voucher and qualifies for the Medallist play off in May next year. Congratulations Terry!

The early Medal finishers enjoying some of the beers that were laid on for the Medal day.

Ambrose day at New Kuta with 54 golfers was the final event of the October Golf Fest. The winning team on the day were the youngsters Laurie Green, Rob Bateman, Graeme Eastick and Mick Kelly with Gross 72 and a Nett 57.

The Winner of Golf Fest was Alan Green who took home the weekly prize pot of Rp.1,000,000 and a New Kuta Green fee voucher. Alan finished October Fest with 341 points some 34 points ahead of Terry Durkin in second place with Ira Septiantari in third a further 19 points behind.

A big thanks from Ramah to all who competed in Golf Fest. It was a great week of golf, some good golf and some maybe not quite so good but fun was had by all. Also, a Big Thank you to our Sponsors again who continue to contribute to making our events fun for all.

We have reached a Milestone in our Membership numbers which have just topped the 600 mark for the first time. As we continue to grow, we have to make some amendments to our operating procedures in order to handle the increased numbers. As we introduce changes please bear with us as we try to figure out ways to operate more efficiently. In some of my recent Ops reports I have talked about the need for respect for the Other Members and also the Staff and Caddies of the golf courses we play. A worrying point of recent times are last minute cancellations, which are hard enough to manage when we are informed in advance, but recently we are seeing people simply not turning up or turning up so late that we end up scrambling around to meet our Tee times. We have tried to be flexible but the acts of a few mean we have to implement a strict cut-off so that we are fair to the majority of the Membership.

Starting January 1st 2023, check-in time will close 20 minutes before our scheduled Tee time start. This applies to ALL Ramah Competition rounds. At that time if you have not checked in your name will be removed from the Tee sheet of the daily event. As a reminder the roads around Bali are getting very busy so plan your trip to the golf course with plenty of “traffic” time built in!

Please also see comment in the Treasury Update below.

To close on a more positive note, in the recent Aussies V the Rest of the World match play event a great day was had by all (well maybe a little more by the ROW team!) and the ROW winning team pictured here were keen to show their delight at the win. To the Aussie side – better luck next time!

We all see things in different ways and I welcome constructive criticism and ideas for improvement. If you have any ideas or thoughts on how to improve Ramah Golfing activities then please feel free to email me at captain@ramahgolfbali.com or when you’re at the course feel free to come have a chat over a beer or two!

Honours Boards

Monthly Medals (sponsored by Linen House) and Medallist of the Year.

With a Monthly Medal being awarded for the Overall Best Net winner of each Monthly Medal as well as a bottle of Aussie Red and a New Kuta Green fee voucher, the Monthly medal is proving very popular. The 12 monthly winners will play-off during May Golf week to determine the Medallist of the Year.

Already qualified are:

Player of the Month (Sponsored by Chris Neale) awards have been hotly contested. Each Monthly Winner receives a Bottle of Aussie Wine and Box of Srixons.

Understanding the POM – As well as playing for the daily cash prizes, Players at all events are playing for points, similar to what they do on the alternate PGA and DP World Tours. The points are tallied up at Month end to determine The Player of the Month. Different levels of Points are awarded depending on the competition importance (monthly medal gets more points) and the size of the playing field. The more you play the greater your chances of winning. The winners since we introduced the new Player of the Month formats are:

Golf Week 2023 – May 11th through May 21st

The May Golf schedule has been finalised as below:

  • Thursday 11th May – Welcome Dinner at Bali Garden Beach Resort
  • Friday 12th May – 1st round of GW23 and Medallist of the Year – New Kuta Golf
  • Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th – 2nd and 3rd Rounds of GW23 – Handara Golf
  • Monday15th – 4th Round of GW23 – Bali National Golf
  • Tuesday 16th – 5th Round of GW23 – Including light Lunch – Pandawa Golf
  • Wednesday 17th – Practice Day at New Kuta Golf
  • Thursday 18th and Friday 19th – Ramah Club Championships and Gala Awards dinner (19th) – New Kuta Golf
  • Sunday 21st – 4 player Ambrose – New Kuta Golf

We are still working some of the pricing with the Golf Courses and some of the details but we are on schedule to have all of this ready for opening up Registration on Golf Genius on January 16th.

Golf Week enquiries have been numerous and we are expecting full courses for each event so please see some Key information below.

  • All registrations will be done via Golf Genius
  • Only Financially Paid-up Members for 2023 will be eligible to register.
  • Registration is planned to open on January 16th.
  • Each Event will have a maximum number of places. When this limit is reached you will be placed on a Waitlist.
  • Registrations will be confirmed on a first paid basis.
  • To protect the interest of our Members, Guests will NOT be able to register for the golfing events with the exception of the Week ending Ambrose on Sunday 21st May. You will, however, be able to register guests for the welcome dinner, meals/BBQ’s and the Awards and Presentation Dinner.

The registration Process (This may change slightly as we work through the Event system in Golf Genius)

  • In order to speed up your registration please go to your profile page in Golf Genius and ensure all of your profile information is up to date.
    • Includes Golf Link Number
    • Email address
    • Membership of New Kuta Golf, Bali National and Bali Handara.
  • Members are required to complete a registration for each of the events you want to participate in. With each registration, you will receive an email confirming that you are on the Pending List.
  • Our Treasurer will then issue you ONE invoice for all of your Pending Registrations
    • It is planned that the first invoices will be issued late January.
    • In order to help us manage the waitlist Payment Terms will be 5 working days.
      • If payment is not received within 5 days your registration status will be moved to “Waitlist”.
    • When your payment has been received our Treasurer will update your registration to “Confirmed” and you will receive an email stating that you have been promoted to confirmed status.
  • Group Registration – If you are registering a group of Members the invoice will be issued to the first Registered Member
    • In this case the Member receiving the invoice is required to make ONE FULL payment for all those included on the registration.

In order to assist in the running of the GW23 Events we ask that you familiarise yourselves with the information on the following linked pages.

GW 23 – Accommodation Deals for Golf Week!

  • Please Ctrl-click here to view sponsors already committed along with accommodation deals and booking instructions for our Golf Week in May, note the closing date of the offers is the end of January 2023. As we gain more sponsors, we will add them to this link. Please support our sponsors where possible.

Treasury Update

Thank you to all our members who have already paid their annual dues for 2023. All members have been issued with their invoices, so please help us by paying your invoice as soon as possible and remember to send a copy of the payment confirmation to: treasurer@ramahgolfbali.com

Please be aware – To help improve on our administrative efficiency, effective January 2023, our Golf Genius event registration will be linked to the financial status of the member.

What this means to you? – If you have not paid your 2023 annual fee by January 1st 2023, your status will change to non-financial and you will not be able to register for Events in Golf Genius.

Payments take a few days to process and get your status updated in Golf Genius.

Please also be aware that Peter has started sending out the 2023 Ramah membership cards to those that have already paid. This also takes a little time so please be patient.

Club Shirts and Hats

We have sourced a local manufacturer for Golf Shirts and have tested the quality during a number of golf rounds and are pleased to announce that they are of excellent quality, lightweight, very breathable and look great. They are being made in Australian sizes as per the table below and will be available in a Ladies cut also.

We are planning to place an order in the next couple of weeks and we will revert when they are available for sale. They will cost A$40 or Rp.400,000.

Limited Edition Hats

We have a limited quantity of high quality, Taylor Made “Raffles to Ramah” Back to the Future Golf Hats”. Mike Barber has very kindly organised for the embroidery as per the pictures below.

We are planning to place an order in the next couple of weeks and we will revert when they are available for sale. They will cost A$40 or Rp.400,000.

We currently have 50 hats in Bali and a further 50 in Australia. They will be sold on a first come first served basis for A$35 or Rp. 350,000, so if you would like to own one of these great hats please send an email with order quantity to treasurer@ramahgolfbali.com and our treasurer will issue you an invoice. Once paid the hats can be collected at your next game at New Kuta.

As always, a Big Thank you to Our Club Sponsors

We have added links to those of our sponsors that have an online presence so click on the link and see more on our sponsors.

Bali Garden Beach Resort, Samsara Inn, Nautylus Design, The Lawn Canggu (SKOOL), Kimpton Naranta Bali, Lucky Day Bar & Restaurant, Marriot Renaissance Uluwatu, Ruci Golf, Mr Golf Bali, Coastal Boutique Apartments, Wanderlust Fitness Village, Yanti Bar and Restaurant, Tori Golf, Sun Shooters Bar & Resto, Pondanu Cabins by the Lake, Sultan Café & Resto, Skin and Bone villas, Gecko Bungalows, Bali Moon, Linen House, Ratna (GUR), New Kuta Golf, Bali National, Handara Golf & Resort Course, Pandawa Golf Course,

Chris Neale, Mark Wiggins, Tim Schramm, Home and Kitchen Bali

And Finally…

Our tenth hole is reasonably benign, apart from the huge expanse of magnetic water on one side and a gaping OB on the other. Only thing in its favour is a lack of trees – or so we thought…

One of our low markers managed to hook his approach from around 90m so badly he found himself in a wee tad of tree trouble, albeit in an area normally far from the feet of golfers.
A trifecta of duffed pitches towards the green found him bereft of further shots or obviously patience as he gently tossed his beloved wedge behind him -where it nestled securely high in that rarely-troublesome tree.

This anonymous golfer handily tossed another of his beloved wedges up to dislodge its embarrassing brother, but it obviously found the view worthy of a longer stay and joined its brother in the new home.

As a line of waiting foursomes threatened to stretch as far as Lombok, our anonymous amateur tree surgeon was forced to call the Marshall for assistance and continue his round with a diminishing assortment of tools.

The helpful Marshall later caught up to him, triumphantly brandishing two wedges … and a headless shaft he had also found there.

The Marshall was full of apologies that, despite an exhaustive search, he had been unable to determine the whereabouts of the third (missing) clubhead.

Thank you Tim Schramm for giving this editor hope that we might not be the dumbest out there…