A True Hacker

Since the launch of Gilastats a few weeks ago, we have 37 players registered. I always kinda felt with the limited game I am having, I’d be somewhere down the middle…not so great as to shoot consistent birdies, not so bad as to have my family disown me for destroying this beautiful game of golf.

And among 37 guys on the gilastats ‘tour’ I’m split down the middle on all the 8 main statistics! First time I’m seeing that I’m a hacker for all. For those wondering, the eight main stats are ranked according to the following:

Anyone interested, click on the gilastats button on the menu, or go here and sign up.

Happy Hacking!

Royal Selangor Golf Club – East Course

Introduction

Note: I was informed by a contact in RSGC that the 1st Nine Old Course and the 2nd Nine New Course constitutes what is known as the ‘East Course’, while the 2nd Nine Old and 1st Nine New is the ‘West Course’, so for the ease of rememberance, this article will be on the 1O/2N, East Course of RSGC.

When Gilagolf started 4 years back, we started with a simple mission: To give readers honest reviews on the golf courses we play on, scrubbing away the prestige, the pre-conceived ideas of the course, the traditions, the marketing drivel and getting down to the facts: how hackers in their teens to 20s handicap play the course.

Through this journey, we’ve faced many disagreements from loyal members from courses such as KRTU, Bukit Unggul, TUDM etc, but these reviews remain mainly in the realm of personal opinion or experience; it’s by no means set in stone. If the courses suck, then at least there’s an imperative to improve. If you don’t agree, what the heck, it doesn’t really matter what a bunch of 20 plus handicappers who duffs, hacks and digs golf courses around Malaysia think, does it? Gilagolf provides what no other sites out there provided (which was the reason for the inception of this blog anyway), that is a look from the eyes of not-very-good golfers (hackers), which constitutes possibly 99% of the fearless joes who deign to pick up this blasted, cursedly addictive game of golf.

Through this journey, we have come upon courses we never thought we’d play on: Saujana, Glenmarie, Mines, Tropicana. Prestigious clubs like KGSAS, Bukit Jawi and Clearwater didn’t get too great a review while gems like Meru Valley, Staffield were uncovered. Our favourtie Bangi also makes it in the top-10 list.

And now for the 59th course to be reviewed, we’ve added Royal Selangor Golf Club, the country’s most prestigious golf club, and possibly a cultural institution forming the very backbone of the modern society in Malaysia. How will we approach such a reverent subject, as holy as the nation’s constitution itself?

Why, by hacking it of course.

Travel (4/5)

Traveling to RSGC is a simple feat: every golfer in Malaysia probably knows where RSGC is: along Jalan Tun Razak, right behind RHB headquarters. From almost every sky scraper you’ll be able to find the former tin mine area designated eons ago by the government for one of the oldest golf course in Malaysia.

In case you’re still blur (and we have in one instance an intrepid fella in our group who mixed up RSGC and KGNS and went over to the latter, and who have since received such a resounding lecture on such criminal negligence of reasoning, that he no doubt will know where and what RSGC is for the remainder of his hopefully very long life), here’s the map.

But seriously, if you call yourself a golfer and have no idea where or what RSGC is, it’s probably time to explore another game like lawn bowl or curling, where you mop floors for a challenge.

Price (3/5)

We were brought in by a member – in fact, short of breaking in and climbing over the electric fence and illegally teeing off – you have no choice but to have a member bring you in. Thankfully, over the course of playing this game, we have made acquaintances that have been very useful. However, RSGC yields a hefty price even for the member guest. The green fees are over RM200 on a weekday (the website rates has probably not been updated since the last World War), and add in the caddy, and the tips, you’re looking at high RM200s to RM300 range. It’s still not as STUPID as some pricing like Mines or Datai, which can hit RM400 on a given day; and after all, RSGC has probably earned the right to charge these fees: we’re talking about the local Augusta, the national heritage; and we’re going to hack it up in our blasphemous interpretation of this divine game.

So really, it’s not too bad price to pay, just don’t expect hackers to play there often. For the novelty of 18 holes on the very course that Walter Hagen used to hack? Hey, a little premium for tradition doesn’t hurt.

First thoughts

We are going in without any knowledge or reverence to RSGC’s tradition. This might probably go down wrong with our purists readers (which is estimated to be 1% of readers to this hacker blog); but RSGC’s first impression is pretty flat. Literally flat. From the lounge, you can look outside across the practice green to the course and count the number of fluorescent yellow flag sticks (which to us is a smart idea) stuck all over the course. There’s not much elevation, or self contained holes; it plays like a traditional golf course: parallel fairways, bail out areas left and right and thankfully a healthy absence of the dreaded white OB stakes.

You can’t write about RSGC without first giving a little history lesson. Of course, in full knowledge that any history lesson would be the best way to tune off readers and put everyone to sleep, instead, I’ll direct you to a very good book called “An Informal History of The Royal Selangor Golf Club: A Royal Heritage”. You can probably buy it from the club or get it off a member. If not a condensed version is found in http://www.rsgc.com.my/history.htm. The website, however is sorely in need of restoration, since it somewhat resembles my first website project about my Westie Terrier back in 1996, but I doubt that’s their priority.

As for novelty, RSGC has on the record, as the second oldest golf club in Malaysia, with Taiping Golf Club pipping it as the oldest, when they were established as an 11 hole club in 1885. In fact, Taiping Golf Club is the oldest in Southeast asia. I heard that it has been shut down, unfortunately, and I can’t imagine which idiotic non-golfing descision maker would deem it anything less than a national crime to shutdown such a club. Anyways, RSGC has no problem on this, as this club is teeming with life. Even for a weekday, you will find many people on the grass only range (they deem range with mats for wimps and for golfers with as much self esteem as a piece of carrot), on the practice green and teeing up on the first…which kind of makes you wonder: don’t these flers have work? Until you realize that they are probably thinking the same thing about you.

Anyways, RSGC was established in 1893, a very interesting history ensued, surviving the war, restoration, relocation etc. It’s amazing to know that Lake Gardens also once had a 9 hole golf course and RSGC almost ended up taking that over. See, Malaysian history is so darn interesting when we don’t need to remember all the sultan’s similar names and whether the Bugis, Dutch, Portugese or Eskimoes came to colonise our beloved nation.

Service (5/5)

Except for the fact that you cannot use your phone in the main lounge (likely a Steve Williams look a like will dump your phone into the pond), the service is expectedly exampalary for a club with this much prestige. You really feel like you are part of history, sitting at the terrace or lounge, cross legged, wishing you had don on a pair of white Englishy pants and sipping some Englishy tea while chatting quietly in an Englishy way. Instead we were all in our oversized shirts and pants and looking like the chinamen we all were.

While the service was generally good, it is the caddy service that really take the cake. We usually don’t like caddies tagging along, one because there are actually very few good caddies in this world; and two, we suck at golf. With a gallery of caddies, it’s even worse. Especially if caddies are like those in KGNS, who are all single handicappers, who really pressure the dickens out of you and even at one point scolded me for messing up my shot…hey, thanks but no thanks.

But RSGC caddies are mainly senior guys who will lug your bag or manage your trolley for you, and give you excellent advice on course navigation. We all had A-grade caddies with us, and it makes a huge difference. I know my score still requires a calculator to add it all up and resembles an arithmetic nightmare, but think about it, it could have been a lot worse if not for some timely tips from my caddy, an old, wizened Yoda. His reading on the greens (and later you’ll find these greens devilishly fast, making Sri Selangor’s greens a walk in the park) was spot on; and you’re gonna need all the help you can get in this area.

Probably the best experience of caddies we’ve ever had. Plus, this caddy of mine has been with RSGC for 48 years. We spent a lot of time walking (no buggies here to desecrate the course) and talking and he told me long histories of the club, which I found very interesting: in fact, I wish he was my history teacher, I would have scored a lot better for my SPMs in form five.

Fairways (2/5)

Ah, where the rubber meets the road. We still need to tell it as it is, and as much as I would love to say RSGC has the most pristine fairways ever….it doesn’t. In fact, RSGC fairways seemed very very much mediocre for the price you are paying, resembling the much cheaper and much maligned Seri Selangor. I’m not a course expert and I wouldn’t know what sort of issues they are having, but it doesn’t look like this is actually what they desire to achieve. It might be work in progress, but the fairways were sparse in some areas, bald patches in others and even affected with what we laymen term as fairway acne, where cowgrass has started to grow in patches on the fairway. A quick look at their website describes the fairway as ‘Seashore Paspalum’ which could very well be Latin to me for my understanding. The rough remains as familiar cowgrass and the greens are Tiffeagle, similar to Beringin greens.

Back to the Papadom fairway, I asked Yoda why it was so, and what was RSGC trying to achieve, and he barked back at me, “Do or do not, there is no try!” while meditating in the Force. He did add that there was not enough sand on the fairway for the grass to grow in a more compact manner, and that the grass was only recently changed to this Papadom variety and they would need some time (and possible additional budget) to get it perfectly mat-like like those we find in Tropicana.

The plus point was that we were detained for 45 minutes on the 14th by rain after the rain, the fairways held up very well, with no sign of casual water. Still, bare patches gives this a disappointing minus on the course.

Greens (5/5)

As disappointing as the fairways were, the greens were a joy to behold. Not to say we did extremely well on the greens and we were playing, likely at the speed of 10, which I am thinking has gotta be pretty fast, since in my home club we are playing at 8. The greens in RSGC are in perfect condition. The roll is perfect, it is fast; and most featured table top greens, meaning a bad approach (which I had A LOT) does not have any bail out areas. These raised greens are hellish to stick to, and even then even more crazy to putt on. Eventually, psychologically you are so weakened that you are basically panic putting, i.e you don’t dare to putt with confidence and you end up just molesting the ball with the putter and groan when you miss that one footer knee knocker. The rain helped stymied the speed a little, but by then we were so utterly confused that I actually managed to putt worse after the greens slowed down!

But this is where Master Yoda kicked in. Over the course of my back nine, after my game stabled out after an outward 50 on an otherwise ‘easier’ Old course, his breaks and reads were essential and led directly to Par on 11th and Par on 13th and saved bogey on 14th and 15th. I one-putted 5 out of 9 holes, at one point one-putting four in a row. And this included an off the green putt on 12th that stopped literally 1 cm from the cup. Easily would have been a blown out game if not for him.

Rough (4/5)

The rough was cowgrass, and I found it quite fascinating that they are able to demark the cowgrass from their fairways so nicely. Cowgrass fairways were not unfamiliar for us, having hacked around KGNS and KRPM and for RSGC, there was a good balance between challenging and bail out roughs. The problem wasn’t so much of the grass, it was the number of trees in your way. And these trees are huge, mature ones, cropping out and blocking your shots and you need to play a variety of punches with your 5/6 irons or going over with your 8/9 irons. The bunkers were in good condition as well, after a heavy shower, not water clogged bunkers to be found.

Aesthetics (3/5)

RSGC will not the the prettiest course you laid your eyes on. It might carry a whole history of tradition, but at the end of the day, the flatness of the terrain makes very few elevated views of the course (at least on the ones we played on). We didn’t get to try the signature 17th hole on the Old Course, having played the first nine Old and second nine New, but the overall looks of the course wasn’t breath taking. A view of the Twin Tower and KL Tower could be seen on the first few holes of the 2nd Nine New Course, and the mature trees do cast some grand views of the course. The caddy mentioned some of these trees were donated by members; while others were as old as the course itself, carrying with it the entire history of the inception, the Japanese occupation and direlection and the restoration to modern day. I half expected him to touch the trees and connect himself to Ehwa and start chanting in Na’vi. Which he didn’t of course.

KL Skyline is definitely part of the course, and I am sure on a sunny day would have afforded some great camera shots. As it was, overcast skies didn’t inspire us too much, and as mentioned, there are many prettier courses out there, compared to this Malaysian Augusta.

Fun Factor (4/5)

Fun indeed. The greens were the primary driver of fun, because it’s truly great to see true roll for a change, after having played on nonsensical greens elsewhere. We’re not great putters by any stretch of imagination, but if you see your curling 10 footer go in not once, twice, but more times, you can be sure you’re enjoying it. As we were wagering a little, it was simply who putted better, and our groups were like boxers, trading blows by dropping good putts to square, to win. Never mind the double bogeys to win it. The course itself is an enjoyment. Now, even if the aesthetics isn’t much to shout at, the course set up is a different matter. I remembered looking around at the first tee (before knocking it OB to the driving range), and thinking, “This looks pretty flat. How difficult can this be?”

For some reason, it seems to play a little longer than it should. At about 6171m for the 1st Nine Old and 2nd Nine New, it seems to be average. Perhaps it’s the yardage that throws us out a bit, or the fact that we are so afraid of the greens we’re all hitting a club less; or the fact that a stray shot requires you to navigate through the mature, donated and the Ehwa trees, but with just two GIRs, it just means, it ain’t easy! Not because we suck, of course. How can that be?

But the fun was that OB stakes were rare and the course allowed all kinds of creative escapism. I was really funneling into a crap mode in my first five holes. OB hole 1. Three putt hole 2, Water in the pretty looking par 5; duffed chip in the nice par 3 4th and a topped drive to 50 m in the next hole. My caddy must have thought I was the dumbest golfer around, but I managed to right the boat a little and clear out my jitters eventually.

The 9th hole in the Old course was an awful one for a sliced drive and I deposited my third into the bunker and couldn’t get it up for bogey.

Making the turn to the new course, we teed up on a wide and inviting fairway on the 10th, under a humongous Ehwa tree. The second par 4 result was from my caddy’s wonderful and perfect read, missed my par on the 12th by 1cm, and parred the index 2 par 5 13th after wildly driving it so far left that I borrowed a fairway from the old course.

The closing 18th on the new course is worth mentioning because it’s a monster. A good drive still left me a 3 wood in and predicatably when all was at stake, I sliced it into water on the right and knocked my 4th into the fronting bunker, losing the wager. It’s a tough cookie to crack but it’s a very good ending hole, and I can just imagine the other drama that has unfolded here, especially ones involving larger winner purses than our RM4 per hole. There, we are playing in RSGC but we’re still cheapskates.

At the end of the day, RSGC definitely gave us the lion share of fun in our group.

Conclusion

It was indeed with some regret that we came to the end of our round with RSGC. Unlike other high expectation courses, RSGC didn’t disappoint overall. Fairways could use improvement, of course, but given the vicinity and accessibility in the heart of KL, and activity teeming around the club, and of course the rich history surrounding the club, it’s definitely a great experience to have a game here. Of course, it’s out of bounds usually to people like us hackers, unless you have a member friend.  It doesn’t blow you away with looks, but the good design, character of holes and amazingly manicured greens make up for mediocre aesthetics and mediocre fairways. And of course, with Yoda beside us: fear not we do, confidence we have, putting we will be good in, also, big our tipping will be.

The good: Geographically one of the most accessible course we know; though socially it is locked-down like Alcatraz to only members; great service especially from Master Yoda; greens are probably the best we’ve experienced; flat aesthetics belies a challenging course design surrounded with mature Ehwa trees; historical heritage that anyone with an opportunity should definitely play on.

The bad: Fairways are really not up to par for a course with such a reputation; aesthetics are not mind blowing; pricing could be mighty steep for the member guest and hidden costs like caddy tips could very well have you taking a policy loan out from your kids’ insurance and eating peanuts for the week.

The skinny: 30 of 40 divots (75%). RSGC’s long history has its pros and cons; many modern clubs might surpass it in terms of looks and gimmicky holes, but this is the original, the Augusta, the hallowed history of our nation’s love for golf imbued into its very fairways and greens. Where the Haig has treaded, and Bobby Locke himself has played on, what more is there to ask for the golfing afficiando? For the course to withstand the test of time and still have so much activity around it is a testament to the course design, club management and club members. It’s a must play for all Malaysian golfers simply for the historical influence on the game and we can finally now say, Gilagolf has hacked RSGC.

RSGC East Course Score Card

RSGC Information

Address: Jalan Kelab Golf, Off Jalan Tun Razak
55000 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Contact: +603-92063333

Fax: +603-92853939

Email: rsgc@rsgc.com.my

Website: http://www.rsgc.com.my

Perangsang Templer Golf Club

Introduction

Gilalogy Theory of Course Crappiness can be attributed to the phenomenon called the Halo Effect. It sounds familiar doesn’t it? Well, because the guy that wrote that book ripped it off from us, since we know Golf Gilalogy has been in existence since the time of Mesopotamia. Anyways, the effect is that in a given area, there’s always a correct balance of good and crappy course. Rahman Putra has its ugly step sister Kundang Lakes.  IOI palm garden has the dastardly UPM. Datai has Gunung Raya. Tropicana has the equally foreboding Seri Selangor. It’s never a case of equals, and it’s never more evident than Templers Park Golf Club vs Perangsang Templer Golf Club. Perangsang has always been in the shadow of the more illustrious club next door.

Unbelievably, this is my first time to the course that I have heard so much bad things about.

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Travel ( 2/5)

The very same route you take to Templer Park Golf Club, you take it to Perangsang. Now I know we gave it 3 to Templer Park, and it would seem unfair to rate it to 2, but as mentioned, this is very much subjective to the club. For instance, if you were to run through a hail of 7.62mm bullets spat from an M14 rifle from one end of the field to another to get an all-paid tour around UK’s best golf courses and a tee time in St Andrews, you would do it, won’t you? It’d still have the same risk, but you’ll do it and think it’s heck of a deal. Now, would you do the same to get to a trip around Ulu Yam? You’d think it sucked.

So anyway, I forget my point. The fact that to get to these golf courses, you need to negotiate the most harrowing U-turn in the world. It’s a U-turn and immediately need to cut 3 lanes to the left to enter. The cars are zooming by, with the occasional 16 wheelers careening out of control and possibly smashing into your car and spilling 20 tonnes of uric acid on you. It’s a ridiculous way to access the golf course.

The alternative is to U-Turn and try to inch left and make the turn at the Shell station instead, giving you more roads to go left.

Absolutely stupid access.

Price ( 3/5)

We paid about RM40 using the Top Premier Book voucher. It’s a good deal. With SSG links, you pay about RM53. SSG links have the advantage of paying RM63 for the weekends, which is pretty good weekend rate to me! They have a few promotions here and there, so head over to the website to have a list of it. But this is pretty reasonable, considering it’s right next to one of the overpriced clubs in Malaysia.

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First thoughts

Before we reached the first tee, one of the maintenance guys ominously looked at us and said, Yesterday, big rain, flooded up to—(he points to his calf).

Obviously, this maintenance fellow is prone to exaggeration, but it’s still a bad sign for us, because we know from reputation how some of these cowgrass courses handle the outpouring of rain. We rolled our buggy past this creepy maintenance guy, holding his rake, and eyeballing us like we were going to Shutter Island. I half expect him to grab our scorecard and scribble the word ‘RUN’ there.

And on we rolled to the first tee.

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Service (2 /5)

Thankfully we were spared from having caddies, so there wasn’t any extra charge, and we didn’t have any real experience with the service: until the end. When we were done with the game, we needed some drinks at the terrace. Being the cheapa$$ we were, we just wanted ice water to cool us down before we head out to Selayang area for food.

Imagine 4 half baked potatoes sitting around waiting for a drink that did not come. We waited, until one of my partners whitered into a prune and finally I decided to get up and look for the water-cooler or the ice water dispenser or anything. Nothing. The waiter kept saying, “Mineral water? Ok!” and I had to go “No, no, just a darn drink! In a cup!” because they will likely charge like RM10 for the mineral water.

Finally I had to practically force them to bring cool drinks for us, threatening them with our famous 7-iron up-down-your-throat maneuver. Not great service.

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Fairways ( 3/5)

OK, enough of the nonsense service, it’s time to get into the course itself. One thing, the downpour was pretty intense the day before but we were pleasantly surprised by the fairway. We didn’t  expect it to hold the way it did, in fact, all of us were already laced in our army boots ready to wade through another heckhole of a course.

So after the first tee off landed (we started on the unforgiving back nine) and we threaded through the fairway, our balls were not plugged and the fairway was in a reasonably drained condition. First fairway (10th hole) was a tough looking one, with a sharp left turn, very similar to Danau’s 10th. The 12th and 13th fairway brought nightmares to us, similar to Danau’s Kate Moss hole 2…narrow bleeping fairways lined with jungles on every side!

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The course opens up in the first nine, so it might be a good idea to tee up normally on the first nine, instead of like us, who seem to be liking the ‘belakang mari’ style of late…in golf that is, your perverted mind misunderstanding again.

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Greens ( 4/5)

Here comes the saving grace for Perangsang. This is pretty amazing, because we expected the course to be in ruins, like the city of Osgiliath. So here we were, a band of brothers wielding our drivers, thinking that this is a poor man’s Templer Park Course and ready to banish the course into the WOTM or AAC category of hell, and when our ball finally plomped onto the green, surprise. …it was in a decent condition. Now I’m not saying it’s in Beringin condition, but you need to understand, the 4 is given because it’s so unexpected…we expected crap and got…well, another nice surprise.

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It was slower than Danau definitely but because of the heavy rain fall. There wasn’t any puddles on the green, you just had to putt harder than usual but the roll was good and there wasn’t any annoying sand of stuff like that. The same guy that four putted from four feet in Danau (even if he was still playing like a drunk Zimbabwean nightbat), was having fun because his putts were reasonable.  His scores were the same, but you know….we hackers have very unpredicatable emotions.

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Rough ( 1/5)

Back to life, back to reality.

As great a surprise as the fairways and greens were, the rough was totally…horrendous. Especially the bunkers. I have a good mind to give a -1 on it, because the bunkers were all swimming pools. Serious. Here’s how they look:

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And not just one! Several! And the ones that didn’t have water had rocks the size of my fist. We decided (yet again) to implement the rule of If-in-the-bunker-then-its-on-the-green. So we didn’t play a bunker shot until the last few holes…but seriously, if you can drain the fairways and greens, spend some time on the darn bunkers man. The rough itself was ok…it’s punishing without being unfair, so we’re willing to conceded a point. But seriously Perangsang, if you want to compete with the big boy next door, your maintenance of bunkers need to improve. Tsk Tsk.

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Aesthetics (3/5)

Now I know what you’re thinking. You give 5/5 for templer park and 3/5 for Perangsang?? Bias!

Well, to be honest, even though they were neighbours, whoever gets the Takun Mountain or whatever it’s called, gets the beauty. Templer Park is right beneath that mountain, and it gives some pretty surreal scenery. Perangsang plays more like a jungle course on the back nine, and more of an open space course in the front. You get a glimpse of the Takun mountain here and there, but especially some holes in the back nine, they played pretty similar.

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The plus side is the water features are really clean. I mean, the river running through Hole 15 was like Evian Mineral Water. In fact, I was just about to dip my hands in it until I realize that one of my playing partners is proned to taking a piss in the middle of the round. Of course we didn’t pollute the pristine waters of Perangsang, but you just gotta be safe you know…pissing Hackers are quite common these days.

There’s also not much elevation changes, unlike Danau or A-Famosa, so overall there wasn’t much things to shout at in terms of beauty. It’s that sort of functional course that tests your accuracy.

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Fun Factor (3/5)

OK, we admit, we did have fun there. The back nine was quite a killer in terms of  accuracy in the first couple of holes but after a while, as mentioned, they played pretty similar. Long drive required, and accuracy to the receptive pin.

OK, once you make the turn, (or rather first nine, please don’t get confused with our belakang-mari method), the course opens up and you definitely feel less claustrophobic. I mean, I don’t know about you but I prefer a wide fairway with plenty of spots where you can screw up. Amazingly, and this is seriously, a mystery of my game, on the first hole, I managed to hit a great drive with a slight draw. It bounced off the fairway and lucklessly landed into a narrow strip of drain marked as hazard just at the side of the fairway. WHAT!!! How can I manage to hit these unseen, small, insignificant hazards and still not get a hole in one??

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Hole 6 is a nice pretty par 3, which we all managed to hit reasonably good shots at. It has some limestone at the background and a very nice pond next to it, from which will enter millions of golf balls. The thing that spoils its beauty would be the electrical lines running all over the course. Why do we have them and Augusta does not?

OK, finally to the killer Hole 7. If we had teed off on the front, we might be able to bruise through this, but as it is, due to extreme fatigue of sitting in a buggy and swinging at tiny golf balls, and also the fact that golfers have the fitness of a beached whale, we weren’t firing on all cylinders.

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This is a crazy hole. It reminds us of that Danau hole 12 but worse. We basically need to target where we want our ball to carry the water. Target too conservative and you will send the ball past the water, past the fairway into OB. Target too aggressive and your ball has no hope to cross the water to dry land. Hook it, you’re in the water. Slice it you are in OB.

Suffice to say, we all tried our first ball and all failed miserably. We each took mulligans and tried our second ball and here’s the result: Mine again in the water. 2nd guy OB…he angrily tees up again and OBs again and screams in agony. 3rd guy gets so afraid he duffs his tee to 30 meters before water. Safe. Last guy decides to take the sissy way out and hits it down 150 meters into the fairway. He’s the safest but he has lost all his claims to his manhood that day.

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Conclusion

It wasn’t that bad. Perangsang actually surprised us a bit. If it wasn’t for the distance and the maniacal U-turn, it might be a great replacement for courses like Seri Selangor, Kinrara and other fringe courses that are bordering on the WOTM scale. The location is not the best, definitely, but we think it’s worth the try. The only thing is that it has to compete with the big brother Templer Park next door. Well at least Perangsang doesn’t have its resident samurai ghost story…or does it?

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The good: Fairways and greens are surprisingly intact after downpour; nice aesthetics; reasonable pricing; a good challenge to your driving accuracy; especially Hole 7; no Samurai Ghosts.

The bad: Rough sucks, too much waterclogged bunkers; suicidal U-turn if coming from PJ; service not up to par; always compared to the better Templer Park Next door.

The skinny: 21 of 40 divots (52.5%).

Perangsang Scorecard


Perangsang Information

Address: No 1, Templer Park Resort,
48000 Rawang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Contact: +603-60910022

Fax: +603-60910023

Website: http://www.ptgc.com.my

Email: info@ptgc.com.my

sales@ptgc.com.my