The February game was held at the prestigious Kota Permai Golf & Country Club. This is a truly first class venue, generally well maintained and challenging in all aspects. With one late drop out, 23 players including 2 overseas KLOGers – Frank McK & Richard Green – and 2 guests (Kas & Edwin) were ready to tee-off on time from 2 tee boxes. Unfortunately the same could not be said to be true for the Club; when our group assembled at the buggy area, there were no buggies available.   First buggies only became available after 10-15 minutes as morning golfers finished their rounds and some members of our group ended up hanging around the buggy area for 30 minutes or so, leaving them little time for their normal tee box preparations.   A similar situation applied to the caddies, with caddies only joining players on Holes 1 or 2. Feedback will be sent back to the club on these issues. After these issues, play then proceeded, albeit somewhat slowly due to other players in front; in particular, our first flight was delayed later in the round by another group taking a rest break at the drinks hut, but then jumping out in front as our group reached the tee.

These issues aside, the course was in good shape apart from a couple of fairways where “scarifying” had been carried out and a couple of green showed evidence of tining.   Greens were otherwise in good condition, fast and tricky.

The weather was initially fine, then became overcast later in the round with a brief shower of light rain which cleared fairly quickly.   However, just as we thought further rain would hold off till the end of the round, the heavens opened and a major storm hit ~ 5.30pm.   The siren sounded after a few minutes of rain, so 3 flights were unable to complete their rounds. Although the rain did stop quite quickly, by that time, most of our group had headed off to the showers and then to the restaurant.

The trusty Mayflower restaurant having now closed, permanently apparently, the group adjourned to the New O&S restaurant for the post-game dinner; some members taking much longer than others to find it due to the vagaries of Waze !.

The (good) food was selected by Barry Cousins (thanks, Barry) accompanied by numerous jugs, plus some good wines provided by RICHARD RODWELL (our sponsor for the wine prize).   We were joined at dinner by Barry, Richard Moss and Alan Wise

Results

The February winner result was decided based on the common 17 holes played by all the leading contenders. The monthly medal winner for February was Berni Schobert, with a score of 37 points, (cut 4).   Runners-up with a score of 35 points were Robert Frager (cut 2) then Mike Smith also 35 points (cut 1), positions decided on their 18 holes scores.   Lowest gross was Geoff McLaws who waited out the storm to complete his round with 77.

For players who did not complete 18 holes, 2 points per hole have been added to give them an 18 hole stableford score, highlighted in yellow which will be used as the February result for the golfer of the year calculation.   Note that the 3 players who only completed 16 holes were not in contention

The committee will develop guidelines as to how to decide the winner in case of future re-occurrence.

Full results below.

NTP winner : Hole 4 : Stuart Taylor

NTP winner : Hole 14 : Pietro Martucci

Longest drive : Berhard Romahn

Last birdie was Richard Rodwell (Hole 15) (who also had a near-eagle on Hole 8)[He told me to put that in !]

As he was away for the AGM last month, Stuart Taylor was presented with his bottle of wine for completing 8 games or more last year. El Pres thanked Stuart for his work last year as Scribe.

COTD

We had 3 nominations this month for COTD.

1. Iain Wise for selecting longest drive to be Hole 1 and for the delay in teeing off
2. Geoff for his double bogey on Hole 5/12 ?
3. Robert Frager for being unable to use a tape measure when measuring the longest drive, and for stopping Paul Geddes from tee-ing off
4. Mike Smith staked a claim for Longest Drive. Unfortunately it was his drive from the Club to the restaurant ! He pulled over to take a long call from a contractor en-route then got completely lost and had to return to the club to get his bearings. He arrived an hour later than some.   This was almost a self-nomination for COTD but the rest of the group did not choose to pick-up the nomination.

Robert was unanimously voted as COTD

Fines A number of players failed to pass the ladies tee – Richard R & Stuart T (#7), Martin W (#2) & Edwin (#12)

Sponsors

Photos :

courtesy of Stuart Taylor (thanks !) & the scribe