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Ramah Rag Q3 2022
I know it has been a while since we had any news fit to print, but I have had many, many begging letters, pleading for me to create another Ramah Rag. Both of you said you missed it…
As you may all have noticed, we have experienced one of those hopefully once-in-a-lifetime events which has prevented any of our International members from golf in the Island of the Gods. But now you are returning, not in droves exactly, but nonetheless a very welcome reappearance of friendly faces eager to resume the Ramah Golf experience.
Welcome back everyone!
So how did we fare in your absence, I hear you ask? Well we sorely missed you all, but Ramah has come through stronger than ever, a closer bonding of those who weathered the time here in Bali, a strong Board (more on those later in the Rag), a strong, active new Captain in Alan Legg, and a refinement of our Golf Genius system driving our handicapping and event management – thanks especially to Peter Manz, our Club Administrator.
Most of our resident membership remained healthy throughout the emergency, with thankfully few COVID cases and most of those who did contract it emerged healthy. Much of that was due to an (amazingly) efficient vaccination program which saw 90+% of our island fully vaccinated when the rest of the world by and large was at the 30-40%.
We elected our first, and thusfar only, Life Member, our long-serving and much deserving immediate Past President Robert Nelson. We saw some awesome golf played by our members. We saw innovative events played like Irish Stableford, Russian Stableford, Red, White and Blue tee events, Black and White tee events and many others to keep us open to new ideas. We also began the “Pot Luck” events, where flights are randomly generated, enabling us to play with members outside our usual foursomes. This has been most successful, and will continue.
We had our first May “Golf Week” since the pandemic, and it was so good to see many visitors ignoring the frankly hysterical media warnings about this benign place, and although numbers were predictably lower than their 2019 highs, we still had more than 70 entrants who thoroughly enjoyed the biggest golfing event on Bali’s calendar.
On the International golfing front, we have seen Min Jee Lee climb to the No 2 spot on the LPGA, (after emulating the 2021 feat of brother Min Woo) in winning the Scottish Open and just a few weeks ago Cameron Smith win the Open Championship in spectacular fashion, coming home with what was for me the most astounding final 9 to overhaul Rory McIlroy and all contenders. His low key but heartfelt behaviour reminding us of the need to actually have fun playing golf, whatever the level.
My thoughts keep going back to the evening after Shane Lowry won at Royal Portrush in 2019. In an age of many robots playing, it’s worth watching golfing joy again… https://youtu.be/eL8JFFQCHjs)
So… those of you who haven’t returned yet – do so… soon. We miss you and want to welcome you back.
Captain’s Corner
I apologise in advance, as this is the first newsletter in a while, it is a wee bit longer than I will normally be writing. I am not big on waxing lyrical as methods of communication, I’ll normally leave those to our forever young Good Shot Robbie, our Editor in Chief of the Ramah Rag and our effervescent Master of Ceremonies during our Golf Week Social activities. He paid me with a lot of Beers to add this in!
Bali is back! Tourist numbers are increasing all the time and the Golf courses are seeing a large increase in rounds played. In May, Ramah held our first Golf Week in 3 years, and although numbers were not quite up to the pre-Covid levels, we had a great week with almost 70+ golfers competing for the honours at the various tournaments held during the week. It was great to see our long-lost Australian members coming back to Bali, even though some appeared to be wearing (a Little) larger sized shirts this time around, due I am sure to the lack of activity during Covid😊. I am also sure that they were struggling to understand some of Scottish daily conveners. Ah dinnae ken!
A HUGE thank you to our members for their generosity!!!!! – Covid took its toll on Bali but YOU, our members, did a great job in supporting the Clubs and caddies throughout Bali. With player numbers down to a handful ofgolfers per day in some cases, the Ramah Members Caddy Fund provided huge support to our wonderful caddies at all 4 golf courses around Bali. This was a huge relief to the caddies, many of whom provide a good deal of financial support to their families.
We have a new board and our thanks go out to the previous Board for their hard work and commitment to the development of Ramah. As your new Ramah Club Captain there are some pretty big shoes to fill with the departure of our previous Captain Tony Brandenburg, who revamped/upgraded many of our tournament activities and did a huge amount of work during his tenure as Captain. Our best wishes go to Tony in his recover from his recent illness and we look forward to seeing him back on the Golf course again soon.
Hopefully I will also be able to take some of the weight off the shoulders of our extremely hard-working Club Administrator, Pete Manz. Due to illnesses in our board, Pete took on even more, on those already heavily burdened shoulders, so a huge shout of THANKS to Pete for keeping Ramah going and even growing in some areas during Covid.
In closing 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!
With a new and enthusiastic Board (all aboard, but not at all bored) here is a short profile of some of them…
Rishi Kumar ( Club President)
Born in 1981 in Surabaya (city in East Java) and then family moved to Bali in 1987 and been here since, did my study in India and Australia (Perth) and since 2006 been back in Bali and running my own golf retail store (rucigolf) and I have extension of my business also (mrgolfbali) which is involving golf tours inbound and outbound mostly in Indonesia and SE Asia. speak Indonesian, English, Balinese, Javanese and Hindi married with 1 beautiful daughter
Golf career: playing of a 3 handicap at the moment, represented Bali in the national events few times as an amateur.. and also been involved in the official Indonesian golf organization doing golf events etc, at last I’m happy to say that ” I love my job” (playing golf)
Alan Legg (Club Captain)
Born 1961 in Scotland in the heart of Speyside Malts where my father was a Distiller. (Yes! That explains a lot). Earned Business degree in Aberdeen before working as a senior Finance guy in the Oil Industry and fortunate to have lived in Amsterdam, Singapore, Dubai, Houston and played some great courses in each. Married to my beautiful wife Sisca (a golfer also) with 2 sons.
Golfing: Current HC 3.2; Hole in Ones 5, love the game and a true believer in having fun on the golf course (with a couple of beers thrown in) “the Worst day on the golf course is way better than the best day in the office”. Best Club: Driver it’s reasonably Long and straight! Flaw: Forgetting to stop at a couple!”
Ron Fletcher
Born 1953 in Fremantle West Australia. Surfed around the world when not working. Retired in Ungasan Bali with my wife Susanti & Son Jack. Love golf (it doesn’t love me) and really enjoy the social atmosphere at Ramah.
Amanah Aliasari
Born and grew up in Jakarta 48 years ago within multi cultural family. Mom was Indo-chinese, dad was Iraqi (here I am, capuccino I guess..!). Received catholic girl education till the end ( believe me..not as “angel” as what you think we were..). After the crisis in 1998, moved to France where I started exporting furniture and on demand construction. 2011..helloooo Jakarta..I’m back with 2 sons (already)! GOLF, woopsy.., started 6 years ago with my other half, Eric (ze frenchy) at Nirwana. First drive was 70 yards, hehehe…getting addicted until now, wonder why..
Current Hcp : 12.6: Favorite club : lob wedge 60 , love the short game..
Unforgettable 1st HIO at Bali Beach 1 week before they closed down.
Working now with Nautylus Design Construction, and enjoying golf with great friends, and getting thirsty together after…
Michael Page
I was born in Cape Town and moved to Sydney in 2001. I’m a big rugby union fan having played while in the army and at university.
Although I’m a relatively inexperienced golfer (still trying to break 90), my contribution to the Ramah Board is through my corporate management experience. As a program manager I have run management committees in some of Australia’s biggest banks.
I retired in late 2019 and live in Sanur with my partner Donna and our 3 dogs. I have 2 adult sons who live in Sydney.
Chris Neale
From Southampton in England, I am married to my wife Linda from Bali and we have 2 kids – Eva @ 5 years and Lillian @ 7 months old – Got another Daughter in The UK @ 24 years old . Time for the Snip I think
My First term on the Board and thought I would help out where I can as been a member now for 4 years . don’t do a lot to be fair – play golf – badly mostly – drink beer – that’s most important and pretty good at that .
Joining Ramah was one the best things I have ever done – meeting all you fantastic people has been a great experience and kept me out the pub
Joiner by trade hacker by nature . I work remotely whilst I’m here in Bali occasionally having to pop back to Europe to fix up some interiors on Cruise ships . I run a small Marine Outfitting Business .
Happy to have a game with anyone and a small wager if you’re keen…
Golfing Activities and results
Monthly Medals and Medallist of the Year. Match committee is reinvigorating the Monthly Medal as the premier monthly Stroke competition. One Monthly Medal will be awarded for the Overall Best Net winner of each Monthly Medal. The winner will also receive a bottle of Aussie Red and a New Kuta Green fee voucher. The 12 monthly winnerswill play-off during May Golf week to determine the Medallist of the Year. The Medallist Year will run from May to April so that the final can take place during Golf Week.Those “skilled” winners who have already booked a place in the final playoffs are: Jason Skeen (May), Paul Cochrane(June) and Tony Colley (July)
Player of the Month is also getting a facelift starting in August with Chris Neale, one of our Board members, sponsoring the events. As well as playing for the daily cash prizes, Players at all events will be playing for points, similar to what they do on that alternate PGA and DP World Tours. The points will be tallied up at Month end to determine The Player of the Month who will receive a box of Ramah Srixon golf balls and a bottle of Aussie Wine. The more you play the greater your chances of winning. Thanks Chris!
Upcoming Tournaments/Events
August Eclectic. 4 Rounds of Stableford played over the 1st 4 Wednesdays in August, 3 Divisions based on Handicap with the best nett score at each hole over the 4 rounds counting to your Eclectic score. Again, the more you play the greater your chance of winning.
October Fest. Runs from October 2nd to October 9thth. Starting with the October Monthly Medal, there will be a Weekly competition which will be run on a points basis. The week will finish with a Team format event on the Sunday 9th. Daily Events will have a number of points up for grabs with the monthly medal carrying most points. The Weekly winner will be the player with most points gained over the week. Get your plans sorted out and get booked up
.May Golf Week 2023 – We are working on finalising the Schedule of events but dates are set for May 12th through May 21st. For the early birds our May Monthly medal will be held on Sunday 7th. Start your planning for what you know is a great week and a bit of golf!
Courses/Tee time Update
The 4 remaining courses (sadly Bali Beach has closed due to commercial development) in Bali are all up and running again at full speed. At New Kuta, our home club, you never tire of the views from the 14th and 15th greens. Pandawa greens are the best on the island, Handara has been doing club house renovations and is looking good and Bali National continues to present a huge challenge with its undulating greens and Par3 island greens.
With the courses back up to pre Covid numbers of players, pre planning your golf is becoming a must. We have had to adjust our morning Tee times a bit to meet New Kuta operations planning so Wednesday morning start at 08:12 and Friday at 08:20. Our New Kuta afternoon Tee times remain the same: Sunday and Wednesday 12:27. As a reminder the roads around New Kuta are getting very busy so plan your trip to the golf course with plenty of “traffic” time built in!
2022 Winners update
Recent Eagle awards – Howard Otten (July hole 10), Peter Manz (April hole 4); Nick Martin (March Hole 18); Don Skipworth (March Hole 16); David Kirkwood (March Hole 10); Daniel Turner King ( March Hole 9).
A Big Thank you to Our Club Sponsors
Bali Garden Beach Resort, Samsara Inn, Nautylus Design, Chris Neale, Linen House,
The Lawn Canggu (SKOOL), Kimpton Naranta Bali, Ruci Golf, Mr Golf Bali,
Coast Boutique Apartments, Wanderlust Fitness Village, Yanti Bar and Restaurant, Tori Golf, Skin and Bone villas, Gecko Bungalows, Mark Wiggins, Bali Moon, Linen House, Tim Schramm, ‘Home and Kitchen Bali’ and Ratna (GUR), New Kuta Golf, Bali National, Handara Golf Course, Pandawa Golf Course.
And finally…
No matter how desperate the situation… No matter danger to life and limb… no matter your caddy point blank refused to bring your club to you… there is always a slim chance to rescue a single point. Whoever you are, you are the GOAT… (mountain goat)
