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Kickstart 2019 Tropicana

So the new year kicks off with all the new equipments for 2019. Just a quick comparison with my last year.

 

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Cobra Fly Z+ vs R11 Taylormade – No competition. The Cobra is several years ahead of the R11 and it shows. I wasn’t just bombing my drives today, but I felt very much in control, unlike the inconsistent display with the R11.

 

Titliest 910D 3 Wood vs Cobra LD 5 Wood – I never really had any 3 wood in my bag before and only had an old LD5 Wood. Again, with a 3 wood, the game changes – especially with this solid fella, which i managed to hit very good shots today

 

    

 

MP57 vs MP54 – This is probably the only one requiring work. The 57s are beautiful things, but I must say, very much different in terms of forgiveness – as in, it has very little margin of error. When I connect, it flies like a hot knife through butter, cutting through air. But when I mis-hit (on several occasions), it’s very tough to play. The 54s are a lot easier, but it doesn’t look that good!

 

 

Smart Square Cleveland vs Odyssey  DFX 5500 – I’ve been having a love hate relationship with my DFX for many years. Sometimes, its so good that the hole looks like the size of a basket ball hoop. Other times I can’t even hit those 3 foot putts. The inconsistency now makes me switch to the much larger, face balanced Smart Square – and it works. Awesome putting today, and the visual (two squares) gives me a lot of confidence.

So Away we teed up at West Course 3 and crossover to East Course 1.

Hole 1: Tee off into the woods on the left as was expecting a slice as experienced on the range. Nope. It was long and left for some reason. Managed to hit a pitching wedge out and flew the green, and left with a chip over bunker. Guess what? Yup, chipped into bunker. Solid Bunker out to around 6 feet and drained the putt with my new putter. The chipping skills cannot be bought though, damn it. (+1)

Hole 2: This is a really nice hole but OB right makes us go left, which I did, leaving me with a pitching wedge into a downhill green. I missed it slightly left, and had to chip it. It landed soft, to around 8 feet and I drained the putt. The putter is ON!! (+1)

Hole 3: Par 3 messed up. My irons flared right, and didn’t even come close to the green. My chipping wasn’t great and I still wasn’t on. From off the green, my putt almost holed and I sank the bogey from around 4 feet (+2)

Hole 4: Nice controlled hole which forced me to hit my hybrid, which veered left a little. From there, it was an easy enough 9 iron into a big green. Long lag putt wasn’t good and my par putt didnt drop. So a 3 putt bogey. (+3). Not an easy putt anyway, can’t fault the putter.

Hole 5: Not an easy hole, but a very good drive sorted it out. I hit a wonderful 7 iron flighted into the green, one of the times I caught the MP-57 perfect and saw what a great club it was in the hands of actual good players (not me). I had around 10 feet for birdie and literally burned the edge with my putt. Good par though. (+3)

Hole 6: Another drive bombed with a slight draw down the middle. This time, to around 110m, I shortchanged my gap wedge and ended up in the bunker. I like bunkers, and I blasted out, two putted for bogey (+4)

Hole 7: Uphill par 5 which another driver found me needing a 3 wood. The new 3 wood is AWESOME. I hit it so flush that it landed into the greenside bunker almost pin high. From there, blasted out of the sand to around 6 feet and somehow missed a very good opportunity for birdie-sandy. Settle for par (+4)

Hole 8:Just when you think we figured out, again, my 7 iron flared right. These MP-57s dont take kindly to off center hits like my 54s.From there, I found myself again in the bunker and again, hit it out to around 6 feet, and missed the very quick downhill putt. Bogey. (+5)

Hole 9: Great end to the 9 with a long par 5. I twacked my driver dead straight.  A 3 wood brought me to about 80m to the pin. I hit a ‘meh’ shot that found me on the left of the green, on a slope, with a water grating in front of my ball so I couldn’t putt. Instead, I had to chip – and for once, hit a great one, which trickled to about 3 feet and sank the par. (+5). Great 9! Away to East 1!

Hole 10: For once, a bad drive that flared right. Still found the ball nestled under the tree, and I thought an 8 should suffice. Instead I missed it badly and it still left me with a very difficult pitch to the green. Yes, I promptly pitched it into the greenside bunker. I blasted a good bunker shot out for 4-on but cannot do anything further from 10 feet. First double bogey of the day. (+7)

Hole 11: It’s a very nice narrow hole. I hit a great fade but it landed into the rough about 110m away. Once more, I mishit my irons badly and my pitching wedge just tricked forward and I had those tricky pitch/chip shots where for once I executed well, leaving me around 4-5 fee to sink the par putt, which I did. (+7)

Hole 12: Another par 3. And another monumental failure again. This time, my 6 iron semi hook got over the water, bounced promptly to the left and went back into the water again. I took a drop, chipped to about 15 feet and ended up double bogey. What’s up with my irons??! (+9)

Hole 13: Ah the great par 5, that just need a good drive first. I drove it well, although it did pop up a bit. From there, I duffed my 7 iron approach and it went only 20m in front. ME-57s are hard to hit, man! From there, my 6 iron found the bunker. A great bunker shot still left me around 15 feet to manuever down hill. I hit it slightly hard, but it hit the hole and rested a few inches from it. Good for bogey (+10)

Hole 14: This is a low index hole because the tee off is guarded by bunkers on left and water on right. I managed to sliver my shot into the middle of the fairway- once again the Cobra Flyz+ proving awesome value for money. However, I pulled my PW slightl and yes —into the bunker, my favourite. A good out, but caught the hill and rolled down to 10 feet. Missed putt, but pretty good bogey. (+11)

Hole 15: This is supposedly an easy par 5 if you have a good tee off. I had a good one, but it landed right in the middle of a huge divot in the rough. It was so unlucky! I could’t get the buried ball with my hybrid properly and it went around 20-30m ahead. Now  have the 3 wood. I also missed it due to the extreme slope I was hitting on. From there, a 6 iron found me off the fairway slightly. My chip was almost good but short a bit. 2 putt for double. (+13).

Hole 16: This is one of the holes I didnt catch properly my driver. Yet, so forgiving was it, it still flew and rolled a good distance. It left me around 140m to the green. Once more, the MP-57 was tough to hit. My 8-iron was short and left. Chip on wasn’t superb and had to two putt for bogey. (+14)

Hole 17: Easy par 3 and this time I made sure I stayed through the ball. 7 iron found the green and two putted for par (+14)

Hole 18: Final hole requires some finesse — not. Once more, the Cobra came out and the drive was good and long – so good I only was left with a gap wedge distance. I launched the approach to the right a bit and landed softly, trickling down to around 6 feet of the hole. Birdie to end the first game of the year? You bet. BIRD IT! (+13)

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The Return of the King and Golf

I took a short hiatus from golf for a few weeks, but after watching the heroics of Tiger Woods winning the Tour Championship in East Lake, I just had to strap up the golf bag to go for an 18 at Tropicana. This time, we tackled East Two and West Three. Traditionally, Tropicana set up hasn’t been very favourable to my game – it doesn’t make sense. It’s not a long course. It doesn’t have many water hazard, except in West Three, the back to back index holes have trouble on the left. And the greens aren’t devilishly difficult as well.

So why can’t I score??! The last two games I played in Trops, we had some drama on the drop (one was the hazard stakes and one was the identification of ball) – I played +22 and +19, hardly scores that elicit any excitement. But maybe today, I can get back some change from this course.

Aside from going hole by hole, I will also dissect my shots to see which one was the one costing the hole. (Chip, Putt, Drive, Irons)

East Two

Hole 1: Started with a good drive that hugged the right side of the fairway and falling around 140m from the green. Switching between an 8 or 9, I opted a 9 and again hit a straight shot – I’ve been compensating for my draw- and landed in the bunker. A good out, and missed the very makeable 5 footer coming back. Greens are fast! (+1).

1. Putt (-1)

Hole 2: Bashed my drive straight again, and once more I was aiming right to draw back. It went so far that I found some clearing under the trees on the right but had to design a punch shot with my 7-iron. Miraculously it cleared the trees, landed to the front of the green and rolled all the way to the back pin, about 10 feet. Probably the best rescue shot I made this year. Unfortunately due to my greed and the fact that our partnership had won, I charged my birdie — too much and missed the come back. 3 Putt from 10 feet!? (+2)

2. Putt (-2)

Hole 3: Drove straight and ended up before bunker on the right rough. It was definitely an easy shot, and I was just looking at a 9 iron to around 140 or so. No issue…except when I came down, I shanked the sh*t out of it. I nearly killed a person on the other hole. After apologising, I managed to get my 60 degree to the fringe, and from there navigated for a bogey. (+3)

3. Irons (-1)

Hole 4: This is par 3 where everyone stops to eat at the extremely expensive but absolutely health-destroyingly delicious Indian Food at the best halfway hut in the world. After gobbling down a small meehon, with just mutton and squid, and paying RM20 over for it (yes, it’s a ripoff and crazy expensive, but it taste so good!), I promptly muscled my PW to the front of the green from 140m. From there two putted for first par. Yaay! (+3)

Hole 5: Great par 5, really like this. I blasted my ball down the slope to where I could potentially reach the green. I only had my 5 wood but managed to get it to just behind the greenside bunker for an awkward chip/flopshop. Managed to do a reasonable chip and had around 20 feet left, which I navigated for Par. (+3)

Hole 6: Chasing an escalation, I hit probably my second best drive of the day. Driving was just absolutely great the first few holes. But this was an index 1 beast, and even after the drive, I had a 170m climbing to an uphill green. My 5 iron was perfect but it fell slightly short, landed just before the green. Previously I would just putt it and get a par, but I thought I was good at chipping – only to find out I was crap shit. Duffed my chip and two putted for a very disappointing bogey and missed escalation (+4)

4. Chip (-1)

Hole 7: We switched partners here and while waiting for the flight in front, I took a look at my partner’s Grenade 2 from Bombtech. You can read about it https://www.independentgolfreviews.com/bombtech-grenade-2-driver.html

Its like a non big name driver that supposedly was tested in a wind tunnel. I just like it because it has the same vomit green at the bottom as my favourite guitar effects ever – the legendary Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer. I tested by doing a fair bit of swings with it and it was great balance but very much heavier than my commercialised TM RS-11.

So right after that, I took up my own driver and — until now, I was driving like a king — on this drive, completely whiffed the ball to somewhere before the ladies tee. I have not whiffed a ball in years and I cannot explain it. As a test, I took the Bombtech driver and just bombed it down the fairway long and straight. It might be two things: a) I’ve reverted to a retarded warthog in my driving or b) I was adjusting too quickly from the significantly heavier driver to my lighter one and just swung out.

Second shot, hit a reasonable hybrid from the rough but didn’t turn so I ended up on the slope behind a few coconut trees but with a nice angle to the green. I hit a good one, but mother of all unluckiness hit the thin coconut trunk around 10 feet in front of me and bounced back. 4th shot into the bunker. 5th out to mediocre distance and two putt for a TRIPLE! Stupid Bombtech driver. (+7)

4. Drive (-1)

Hole 8: Trying to shake off the shocking hole was tough and for this par 3, I hooked my hybrid into the bunker on the left. The bunker lie was great, and I had plenty of green to deal with but in my mind, I wanted to catch the ball lightly and get it to the back portion beyond the flag as I saw a slope funneling downwards back to the pin. I imagined in my mind, I would catch it, and it would fly and hit the slope and come back down into the hole.

It’s very rare (as rare as spotting an armadillo smoking a cigar) that I can pull off EXACTLY the shot that I envisioned in my mind’s eye. Firstly, I am not very skilled, so to get it out of the bunker and get it to the slope is probably a 1 in 1,00,000 chance. Except. That It happened. I hit exactly the shot I wanted, it went exactly to the spot I needed it to be and it rolled down exactly as the way I hope it would – leaving me with a downhill putt of 4 feet, which I dispatched with glee. Super Par! (+7)

Hole 9: Drove well, and actually had a good chance to reach the green with my 5-wood. However, I topped the damn ball but it still rolled to around 100m. My sandwedge pulled slightly but I still had a routing putt from the fringe to the hole for par. (+7)

Hole 10: So we crossed over the West 3 and I hit a good drive but got hung on the right and landed on the rough. I should be able to hit this 150m green pretty easy, but I underestimated the slope and rough and chunked my 8-iron to behind the greenside bunker. Chip again! And foul up again. It clunked into the bunker in front of me. Fourth shot out and two putted the dang hole for double bogey. (+9)

5. Chip (-2)

Hole 11: I like this blind dogleg right hole. It’s very scenic and adventurous. My drive wasn’t as great as others, but it still left me in the rough to a severely downhill green from 160m. But because of the hill, I used my 9-iron and absolutely hit a peach of a shot, just barely clearing the bunkers and falling and rolling to around 10 – 12 feet of the hole. BIRDIE chance! And again, like hole 2, I rammed my birdie through the break and kicked myself when I missed the comeback putt again. Three putt Bogey. (+10)

6. Putt (-3)

Hole 12: Par 3, I pushed my 5 iron right and once more, behind the bloody bunker, I conjured up a chip INTO the bunker. 3rd shot out and two putted for my double (+12). So unnecessary!

7. Chip (-3)

Hole 13: Took a 5 iron, duffed it abit so I had around 160m left. Again, since it was a red pin, I took out my 9 iron and flighted the ball perfectly to the green. Left with around 8 footer for birdie, I finally walked it in, while pointing my finger a’la Tiger Woods. (-11). This is how golf should play, dammit!

Hole 14: Usually after a birdie, we end up screwing up the rest of the game. But this time around, I managed to sustain an unusually good driving day by sending this one down the fairway, with water on left. I only hard a six iron in from there, but I didn’t hit it great and again it was slightly short. At least this time my chip wasn’t horrendous, but it wasn’t great so I had to two-putt for bogey. (+12)

Hole 15: Traditionally difficult hole for me but again, stripped down the drive and even had time to pose. This was completely bludgeoned and best drive of the day. I was around 30m in front of my other friend who hits a reasonably distance as well. However, I found my ball halfway into a divot and gauge it out to the back of the green where again, a routine two putt par. (+12)

Hole 16: Par 5 uphill. Hit the driver well again — today it’s almost like auto cruise — and from there, a 5 wood against the wind had no chance. So I took a 60 degree wedge into around 80m and pulled it. Now, I had a putt from fringe that goes down, up and down again to the hole. 20 footer at least. Birdie try and it gets in!! Multiple birdie rounds, even though the second one, I didn’t know much about it. (+11)

Hole 17: This was my third attempt to escalate and probably easiest par 3, which is downhill and where we can see if from the Tropicana road when we drive in. I hit probably the only place I shouldn’t hit – right. In the rough, I chipped out ok, but two putt once more for bogey (+12)

Hole 18: Wanted to thunder this ball down the fairway and straightup ended with a duck hook. We found the ball nestling under the tree and had some hidden roots. I gingerly hit my 5 wood to clear the trees, but it plopped down to around 200m from the uphill green. I tried another 5 wood shot again, whiffing it again. WTF?!? Now in rough I tried one more time and finally soared to the fringe. For some crap reason, I decided to chip instead of putt and was unduly reminded that my chipping expertise is probably the same roughly as a 6 month old baby. The chip barely made to the green  for 5 on and from there a two putt for a very disappointing last hole for me. (+14)

8. Drive (-2)

9. Chip (-4)

So overall, at 86 gross, it’s really good. But I lost mostly from my chipping problems (4 strokes) and my putt, another 3 strokes dropped. On the plus side, my driver, except for two occasions was almost perfect, and my irons were hole hunting today more often than not. So, really, a very good round for me and if I can pick up 2 – 3 strokes from my chipping, I think I can probably shoot a consistent sub 85 round.

But the good thing here is that at 86, this is probably my best score on Tropicana ever!

Now on to the Ryder Cup!

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Tropicana Crash and Burn

The amazing thing about golf is that you can be playing amazing one week and the very next game play like an African Gibbon. It’s very strange in that sense that it’s like a roll of the dice week in week out. You think you got it all figured out and golf just whacks you in the ass the next time and go, “Screw you, you know nothing about me, sucker!” and you are left wondering why the heck you continue to play this torturous game.

After last week’s 81 in Mines I was thinking I can go to Tropicana and score a really good score. You know, since I am playing “well”, and I had 3 birdies the last time out. Tropicana shouldn’t be an issue, right? We’ll see. We teed up at West 3, and then Cross Over to East 1. And boy, was I in for a hiding.

Hole 10: So in the West 3 – East 1 combo, West 3 is technically the back 9, so we started off on this relatively easy par 4, 10th hole. I hit a really good drive – honestly, it was good – great shot shape, but it drew in a bit and caught just the tip of the bunker, like maybe a few centimetres from safety, and rolled back in, right next to the high lip. From there, I could just do an easy out and 3 on. But I thought I was so good from last week, so I did a jackass thing in trying to reach the green with a 9 iron. Obviously I couldn’t carry the lip and it landed back in. Idiot. Took my medicine, out with my sand wedge. From 100m, I pulled my gap wedge 4th shot way left. I did hit a reasonable chip to on and one putted for a double bogey. (+2) All the loving feeling for golf is gone in one hole.

Hole 11: Trying to shrug off Hole 10, this is an impressive Hole 11, with a dogleg right to a downhill green. My tee shot was left a bit in the rough and around 120m from the green. I thought since it was downhill, front pin, with water at the back, I could muscle my gap wedge in there. Bad decision again. The rough was too thick to get purchase, and my ball hit the leaves of the coconut tree and ambled around 30m from the green. A mediocre chip found me around puttable distance, which I put on and one putted for bogey. Hey at least, I’ve one-putted my first two holes! (+3)

Hole 12: With an 8-iron I flew this too far right almost to the flowerbed. Took a drop and hit a reasonably good chip to around 8 feet and sank in the par putt. Yes! Another one putt! (+3)

Hole 13: This was a struggle, because I teed off with a 6-iron and had around 130m to go. I was caught between a pitching or a 9-iron and since it was an uphill green, I opted a 9-iron and hooked the hell out of this ball. It landed at an impossible downhill slope near the flowerbed, with no drop, so I had to semi punch-skewer the ball to the green area with my third shot. I hit a bad putt for my 4th and two putted for my double bogey. (+5). The hits keep coming.

Hole 14: Once more, a very bad swing and my shot hooked into the water on the left. It was a good thing it hooked, because I managed to drop it around 150 or so from the green. My third shot with a 9-iron found me right at the front of the green and from there navigated with a putt to put on, and another putt to hole it for bogey. (+6). Another one putt!

Hole 15:Again, my drive was pulled (I am struggling today with drives) and almost entered the water but stayed dry. This was a routine pitching wedge to the green but instead I skulled it and it shot left. Thankfully, it caught the greenside bunker that prevented it from entering the water. From there, one out and two putted for another bogey. (+7)

Hole 16: This should be a straightforward par 5, but as I expected to hook again, I aimed it too far right and it caught the tree. I used my 9 iron to lay up to about 100m and hit a mediocre gap wedge to the center of the large green. Unfortunately I three putted, with my third putt missing from 4 feet. Sucks. Bad bogey. (+8)

Hole 17: This is a good par 3, front pin and easy. Or so I thought. I was going in with a gap wedge and still conjured to miss the green left with a pull. From there, I hit an awful putt that didn’t even reach into the green. From the fringe, a two putt left me with another bogy (+9)

Hole 18: Already sort of fuming at my game, we reached the last hole this 9, the difficult par 5 uphill. I always struggle here, but this time, a perfect drive left me with the thought of going for it in 2. Wisdom overcame me — for once, and I just layed up to about 100m, and then with a gap wedge, took my third to the green and routine two putted to end this nine with par. (+9)

As I crossed over, I have reasonable feeling with putter after hitting some good distance putts. My driver wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either – I’ve had a few good whacks with it that really flew. It’s my irons that’s struggling, as I can’t seem to get the proper distance this time around – and also my short game – chips etc around the greens. No surprise there. Last week I was +10 over 18. This week, I am +9 over 9. That’s golf.

Hole 1: I completely whacked the crap out of this hole with my drive as I landed around 130m from the green. This is a long one, with a very steep green uphill. I hit a pretty good 9 iron to be honest, but it just held the straight line too long and didn’t draw enough. It hit the side of the green just a few feet from the back flag and rolled back down into the valley. With my chips resembling a blind hyena, I decided to putt uphill (I am obviously not on the green). The uphill putt is around 50 degrees tilt or so I think, so I hammered it through the green to the other side. Two putted for my bogey. It’s such a waste after that drive. (+10)

Hole 2: This hole I usually take out the driver, but decided to use a 5 wood this time and see if I can navigate it better. Not a good hit, landed in the rough on the left, around 150m away from the green. Since it was front pin and down hill I thought a 9 iron can get me home. I pulled it and it yanked to the left, to a valley similar to Hole 1. Once more, I opted to putt with the same result – I blasted it through the hole. This time, my putt came around 4 feet short and I missed the short putt. First three putt for double bogey. (+12)

Hole 3: Never play a par 3 when pissed. I was pissed and with an 8-iron I duffed my tee shot, leaving me an awkward lie with ball above feet, around 80m from the hole. To balance my duff, I skulled my second shot into the water behind the green. My 4 on putt was fantastically bad and I had to two putt for my triple bogey. (+15)

Hole 4: This time, I whacked a perfect drive to the right on this long par 5. I wanted to see if I can reach the green 230m away with my 5-wood, until I calmed down a bit and saw the stupidity of such an endeavour. Instead, I layed up behind the water, and put it on with my 3rd shot gap wedge. The downhill first putt left me around 5 feet to save par, which I did. (+15)

Hole 5: Traditionally a tough hole wit water on the right. I hooked my ball left, leaving me a very difficult lie. I could only punch out and left with around 40m to the green. Instead of pitching, I opted a bump and run (from 40m). The only place I could hit this was at the slope fronting the green and coax it onto the green with red pin. Which I did. I probably hit the best bump and run chip of my life. I still had to navigate 5 feet of green for a par save, which miraculously I managed to. (+15). Things are looking up!

Hole 6: And just as it looks up, it comes crashing down again. This is a par 5 that I usually can score. However, this time, I hit a drive so straight and long, it ran out of fairway and bounded to the slope on the right, which was OB land. I reloaded, and hit almost the same shot. God darn it! When I went to look for the ball, I found both my balls, near each other. However. One was OB. The other one was in the drain, which according to the caddy was a free drop.

Now, the last time out in Trops, we had a contentious drop. Here, this was the problem. I used Maxfli balls to tee off. The whole day I’ve been using Maxfli with the number 4 (because I want play 4 strokes on every hole). My backup ball usually is Maxfli 3. Now unfortunately, for this hole, I did not take the time to identify my second ball which I reloaded. Because the OB ball was number 3, and the ball in the drain was Number 4. The caddy said, your first ball is the one in the drain. The second provision ball was in OB.

I asked, How do you know? Because I did not identify my ball before I hit the provision. (I didn’t think I would lose it the same spot as ball 1 but it’s a stupid excuse. We must ALWAYS ID our provision ball!). He said, based on ball flight, and the fact I am always using ball 4 for all my other holes. My buggy partner came up to me and said, he can vouch I tee off with number 4 as he saw my ball a few holes and saw the number, from the putts etc. But again, I did not identify my tee ball OR my provision ball. And both are almost identical except for the number.

The question I asked myself: Caddy was sure, partner was sure, but was I sure? I was 95% sure that my first ball was in the drain and not in OB based on ball flight and playing habit throughout the day. But was 95% sure the same as 100%? This is the same story where this week, Sung Kang, a PGA golfer was accused of cheating with an incorrect drop, where he said he was 95% sure he was correct.

95% ain’t 100%. And in golf, you need to be 100%. Especially if we are playing for money, which we were, as usual.

So I told them, ah sh*t, I will just take the OB ball because that’s 5% and I can at least sleep at night. So I dropped the OB ball in the rough and whacked what must be my best 5 wood for a long time, which sailed almost onto the green. Unfortunately, from that prime position to at least save double, I managed to duff my chip into the bunker. Six out to the green and two putted for an ugly (but God honest) 8. (+18)

Hole 7: After the long hold up, I approached the par 4 seven, which had trouble left. As my swing is so retarded, I decided to hook it into OB! So previous hole was a push right into OB, now, a hook left into OB. WTF!!! Reteed again, wallop it perfect, a 9-iron second shot landed in the rough near the green. 5-on with a remarkably mediocre chip, and two putted for my second triple bogey in a row. (+21)

Hole 8: Par 3 downhill 110m. This looks exactly like hole 17. And my shot also ended up the same place as hole 17. I hit a good shot, but it bounced on the green, and slipped down the valley on the left. Again left with the familiar uphill putt up the valley, I finally executed ONE correctly. It left me around 4 feet to par, which I did. With a fist pump! (+21)

Hole 9: Final hole, I pulled my drive a bit to the left rough but was reasonably ok. My gap wedge found the green, but unfortunately on the top shelf, where the putt was so devastatingly quick, I only touched the ball and it rolled 6 feet past the hole. My return putt wasn’t high enough and ended the day with a bogey 3 putt. (+22)

Honestly, I didn’t feel my game was way off. It was a touch off, but it was all that was needed in Tropicana. Trops biggest defence are the greens. Most of the greens are tabletop, where a slight miss will send you down some Valley of Doom where your chip needs to be on (not like mine, which is perpetually OFF). Whereas Mines, when you miss the greens you can still putt on and get it close, it’s nearly impossible to do the same in Tropicana when you are faced with an uphill putt to a green, with a slope at 60% angle. My putting is still feeling good, and aside from a few bad decisions, I feel this 94 could have got down to 88 or something. On the OB drop hole – I lost about 2 strokes there for playing my OB ball. Well, at least I can say I play an honest 94, much better than a contentious 88.

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Challenging Tropicana and an Interesting Hazard Drop

We haven’t played in Tropicana for some time, and from memory, it seems a reasonably easy course for us. After coming out of a sub-90 round in Palm and great driving, I was reasonable optimistic about this round.

Just a note, the fairways in Tropicana weren’t in their usual good conditions. Rain and maybe an iffy maintenance schedule has made it a bit soggy and damp – not terrible, but still, no the pristine fairways we are used to seeing on this course. The greens as well is being sanded, so you expect bumpy, unpredictable putts. But this is generally Ramadan Conditions – courses are taking this low traffic weeks to fix up their courses.

Hole 1: We started out in East Two (cross over to West Three). It’s a reasonable easy par 4, which I started badly pushing my drive right. Under trees, I only managed to chop a poor shot out. Then another poor chop to around 50m, and then a 60 degree in. Two putt for a double bogey to start. Ominous. (+2)

Hole 2: Beautiful par 4 with a downhill drive. Pushed again to the right! This time, I hit a reasonably good 6 iron to keep it under the trees but zipped over the green into the rough, slope behind. Chip! And a very poor one. It didn’t even reach the green. A putt to get on and 2 putts again to start double-double. (+4)

Hole 3: This time, striped a good one down the right side over the fairway bunker. With a pitching wedge, I managed to hit a stupid shot and missed the top tier of the green, leaving me a horribly long putt. Which I three putted. Again. Bogey. (+5)

Hole 4: Already fuming after the previous hole, this was the supposedly the easiest hole, a Par 3 that we ALWAYS hit short for some twillight zone reason. It states 125 from our tee, but everytime my pitching wedge is short. And yes, it was short again, leaving me a tricky turning putt from the fringe. First putt wasn’t great but my par putt brushed the hole, another missed par for bogey. Two 3 putts in a row. DAMNIT! (+6)

Hole 5: Par 5, played WAY back championship tees. I hit a pulled drive, but no harm. Second shot was a crap, stupid duffed 6-iron, leaving me a huge 220m away for my third. My 5 wood brought me to around 30m, and my 60 degree went over the flag, with a tricky 30 footer downhill putt. Which I probably will miss. Except, this time, I didn’t. It snaked down and horse-shoed into the hole for a saved PAR! (+6)

Hole 6: Feeling good, I promptly pushed my drive right again. Thankfully, found it but was way far away from the green on an index hole. A five wood brought me around 30m, a nonchalant chip left me too much to do and bogeyed. (+7)

Hole 7:This was BLASTED. The drive was long and found me around 140m from the green. I would usually smoke a 9 iron in but the flag was set right the front next to the pond, and I chickened out and used an 8-iron. Promptly flew over the flag to the top tier, leaving me an absolute horror putt to come down. 3 Putt bogey? OK, deserved that. I should have challenged the damn pin. (+8)

Hole 8: Long par 3. An iffy par 5 left me needing a chip onto the green. It’s an easy chip from the rough, but I duffed it again, and had to putt my 3rd on. Two putted again for a horrible double bogey. (+10) So I have duffed two of my chips, leaving me a double on each of these holes. Looks like bad habits coming back.

Hole 9: Par 5, which usually should be easy, but I pushed my drive way right to the other fairway (hole 1). A good recovery with a five wood actually found me on the rough at around 100m. I should hit the green with my eyes closed. Instead I missed it by duffing my sand wedge, skipped the bunker and the ball rested at an impossible angel, where I had to stand INSIDE the bunker and hit the ball at was at nearly my stomach height. It did find the green finally and two putted for another bogey. (+11)

A +11 isn’t great for what is supposed to be an easier course. But it was definitely due to just bad overall decisions and iffy chipping. 3 putts are also killing me.

Hole 10: Cross over, new 9, hopefully new game. Par 4, hit it well, almost into the fairway bunker on the right. The next shot was a straight 9 iron without any draw, which left me a chip away from the green. So I chipped and it zipped past the hole to around 10 feet. 2 putt bogey. (+12)

Hole 11: Finally, a hole that is played WELL. I cut this dogleg so much with a good drive that I was only around 100m away to a downhill green. I should have used my 60-degree but opted for my sand wedge instead. It shot over to around 20 feet from the hole. Two putted for a good par. Only my second one! (+12)

Hole 12: Par 3, sucker pin on the left next to the water. I drew a good six iron in, landed to the front and a very long putt. I lagged to around 6 feet or so and managed to finally sink it for par. (+12)

Hole 13: Just when you think everything is going well, I blocked my 6 iron next hole, hit the cart path and bounched happily to OB. Reloaded, and a 9-iron to the green for 4 on. Two putted for double. (+14)

Hole 14: This is an index 1 par 4 which I just wasted. I hit a good drive, but left with around 180 to the green, I hit a great 7-wood that was literally about 10 inches away from entering into the green. Instead from the front to the back pin, I three putted for an absolutely stupid bogey. (+15)

Hole 15: This is a bit contentious. I hooked my ball a bit and thought it was going into the water. It hit a palm tree and dropped into the flower bed lining the edge of the water. Now, flower beds are free drops in Tropicana (according to caddy, I guess). But unfortunately about 10 feet away from where I was was a red stake. And because there was a flowerbed, we couldn’t see markings of hazard, and the other red stake was far away. I wasn’t in between the red stakes, I thought. But if you draw an imaginary STRAIGHT line, my ball was probably resting on the imaginary line. However, the water edge wasn’t straight. So If you draw an imaginary line FOLLOWING the water edge, my ball wasn’t in the hazard. Or at least, depending on how thick this imaginary line is. So how? Hell I don’t know. We don’t have a rules official. The flower bed is a free drop. But was I in the hazard, based on the hazard line rule? Was there a line in the first place? None because of the flower bed. Usually we should have a line drawn, but in this case, there was none because I guess Tropicana loves its flowerbeds.

I would generally think this is fine and free drop, but because we were playing for money $$, I think it’s a little too liberal to just not penalise myself, so I had to interpret it as such: if in doubt, be conservative and penalise. Besides, my partners were all on the green and I didn’t want to call them back on a ruling. So I did penalise myself. I dropped for three, bashed my 8 iron near the green. Hit an ok chip over bunker to 4-on and two putted for double bogey. (+17)

Hole 16: Reachable par 5 and I hit a solid drive, followed with a good 5 wood, if a little pulled left. Now, I was around 30m away from the green, an easy 60 degree should do it. Instead I blasted it over to the top tier and with a fast roll down to the pin, I conjured an amazingly stupid 3 putt for bogey.  (+18)

Hole 17: Its so frustrating. You know you aren’t playing that badly but the scores are not reflecting it. So on a downhill par 3, I finally hit a great pitching in, almost slam dunked into the hole an rolled to around 10 feet away. It was now an extreme right to left slider, downhill. Not an easy one, but one that I somehow miraculously managed to navigate, fist pump – boom, a birdie. (+17)

Hole 18: All the adrenaline from the last hole gave me a lousy drive. Blocked on the left, my 5 wood almost landed into the water. Third shot 6-iron from the water edge went into the greenside bunker. Out was poor and from the front of the green, three-putted my final green for a double bogey. (+19)

Overall, the strange thing is that it wasn’t as if I played badly. Fine, the first two holes put me in a hole already, but again, I had 6 three putts. SIX! And I had a few bad chips that didn’t do me any favors. The putts is something I need to improve, 100%. If I can half my three putts to 2 or 3 per round, i gain 3 – 4 strokes, that means moving me to a 12 – 13 handicapper as opposed to the 15 – 16 I am playing now. The chips – people may look and say I am chipping like a tapir, but really, I’m happy with it. You must understand where I was a few weeks ago. I was completely UNABLE to chip. UNABLE. So now, I need to chip more during the game, get into the groove of chipping during play and I will be fine. Not worried about it. Worried about my putting.

As for the hole 15 rule, the closest I can get to is from here: http://www.barryrhodes.com/2013/05/water-hazard-margins.html.

Part of the Definition of Lateral Water Hazard states: When the margin of a lateral water hazard is defined by stakes, the stakes are inside the lateral water hazard, and the margin of the hazard is defined by the nearest outside points of the stakes at ground level.

This is a very interesting situation. Because where my ball landed, it was clearly UNCLEAR whether my ball was in the hazard or not. It was NOT PLAYABLE, correct, but because it was in a flower bed which is an immovable obstruction (according to caddy, and I did not check the scorecard). So imagine if the flower bed wasn’t there, where would the line be? The distance between the red stakes were far because of this flowerbed between them, so there was no clear line markings for hazard, neither was it easy to draw an imaginary line. So unfortunately, because it was really a 50-50 matter, I had to declare it on the conservative interpretation and declared  penalty drop. Incidentally, if I had bogeyed that hole instead of double bogey, my partnership would have won the hole, and won the game. Instead we lost. So that one stroke cost me my lunch…but I think it was the right thing to do, and like life, golf should be done in the most ethical way possible.

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Tropicana – great course, horrendous caddies

Tropicana has always been a favourite haunt of ours. The advantages of the proximity to all our homes, the great fairways there, good greens and overall mixture of challenging holes and holes we can attack – and over 27 holes, it has become our preferred destination of weekday golfing.

Which brings the problem – it is also the preferred destination of a thousand other golfers. Even playing on a weekday, especially with one 9 closed, can feel like a weekend pace for some. Especially today, when we had an absolutely hopeless flight in front of us. You know those type that takes 2 minutes to putt a 3 footer, misses, kicks out a leg and screams a chinese expletive. It is very, very tiring just sitting down (yes, we finally gave up and all of us just sat on the fairway watching them do their nonsense) and seeing how frightfully inconsiderate they are.

While Tropicana is one of the best course in Malaysia (in our opinion), it is balanced out with the most crappy caddies in all of Malaysia. They are useless and the ones we experienced were idiots. I generally don’t like to comment too much on caddies, but today, there was one hopeless lady caddying for us (the other buggy, not mine). She had comments for everything. The clubs we used, the distance, what we should be doing and all that. Once in a while it’s fine but when I am at the 17th hole, and you are the caddy of the other buggy you DO NOT tell me to hit a 8 iron into a 140m stick. She just stood there and said, “For you, boss, use 8 iron”. I am like, who the hell are you? You don’t caddy for me so shut the hell up.

The final hole, where it was a 240m to the pond, while everyone was using 3 wood, I was contemplating between my 5 wood and a half controlled driver. Because I was feeling good with my driver. She immediately said, “Cannot! Tak boleh!” and I told her, the more I hear cannot, tak boleh, the more I say, BOLEH. And it was the last hole anyway and I just wanted to swing it. She kept grumbling for some reason. She is NOT my caddy. She caddies for the other buggy. My caddy was generally mute, which is the preferred condition I want my caddy to be in.

I hit a great shot, but it drew and it looked like it entered into the water near the green. The “not my caddy” laughed and said, “Padan Muka (serves you right)!” a few times.

I walked over to her and said in my broken Malay interspersed with English colourful words, “You do not comment on me. Once, twice is enough. If the golfer decides to use a club, the golfer decides. You do not make any further comment, or laugh or make fun of the golfer. You are not my friend. You are a god*amn caddy, and that’s what you do, so shut the **** up and caddy your sh*t or else I am going to leave you here or throw you into the ******* water. You are not my friend, so do not talk to me like you know me or you know sh*t about me. You don’t get any tips and I am going to put your card into the sh*tty caddy category later. Now get the **** away from me.” I said it in a very calm manner, but made sure she understood. She has no familiarity with me, and I have zero inclination to be familiar with her, so unless she wants her mouth stuffed full of golf balls, just do what your limited job scope is or get out of my sight.

I found my ball at the edge of the water, used my 60 degree and stiffed it to around 5 feet, missed the birdie and par my last hole. She avoided me after that.

This is not the first time, Tropicana caddies have given us shit. The problem with these caddies is that they think they are our friend. There was another caddy my friend scolded the other day (on the 1st tee, nonetheless), for showing up late, and not doing what she was told, and scowling and making a meal out of taking the club for my friend. He just told her to get away from our flight and basically kicked her out. The starter intervened before my friend went berserk on her.

It’s not like we want treat Caddies like crap. I get it. It’s not easy caddying for hackers like us. But when we have told you to shut the hell up once or twice, then just shut the hell up. Again, the concept here is you are NOT my friend, so don’t talk to us like how we talk to each other. They aren’t educated to caddy properly, and I fault Tropicana for that. If you give us hopeless caddies, then at least just let them carry our clubs and that’s it. Nothing else. Tropicana = great course, EXTREMELY USELESS caddies.

My game was amazingly up and down today. When the dust settled, it was 5 double bogeys, 4 triple bogeys, 1 bogey and 8 pars.

I almost went bogey free today except for the 17th hole when I hit my first bogey with a bad 4 footer miss.

And it’s not like I was driving it bad. All my triple came from great drives.I usually set up to aim right as I have my draw as my normal shot and hook as misses. For some reason, on all my triple bogeys, I hit great straight drives – either they went into the water or OB, or in one occasion, I simply could not find it. So driving wise, except for one hole where I topped it, it was a PERFECT driving game for me.

The other parts of the game was another story. My chipping was like a baboon trying to hump a kangaroo while parachuting down, with a dynamite attached to the ass. That’s how bad it was. There is something wrong mentally. I am mentally incapable to chip. I do it perfect on the practice range, but in the game, as if for some reason, I suddenly become a tapir learning how to tap dance. I don’t think it can be cured, like my color blindness, so I just have to live with this confounding handicap. This has turned many of my par or bogey opportunities to double and triple today.

But yeah – slowly, I am getting back up to speed for 2018. It’s at least a lot better than my first game for sure.

Oh by the way, at the end, we did tip the hopeless caddy and we also put her card into the ‘good’ category. For all our talk, we are actually very compassionate people and look – you are far away from your home, you probably have kids back home you are homesick for, and you probably made an honest mistake in being familiar with us when we don’t want you to – let’s move on, be careful next time. That’s why I like this group I play with, we are NATO people – No Action , Talk Only. Always threatening the caddies, but at the end we are too charitable to be angry for long!

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The Absence of Inspiration

Yes, I admit this blog has not been updated for the longest time. And the few readers coming back has wondered if gilagolf has indeed

a) Given up golf

b) Died

Well, neither is correct. You could say, for a), the drive of golf is still there. Still playing at least twice a month, and still finding it hard to crack 90 and still with an overswing and still suck at chipping. Golf is a game that does not commensurate and reward the time you put into it. It’s annoying that after more than 12 years of hacking this game, our scores generally remain as it is with a few improvements and many many many false dawns. I think as we grow older some aspects of your game improve. But some de-prove. For instance I am certainly driving a bit better now, but my short game has progressively become worse.

We played at Tropicana recently. And although I managed 6 pars, even with a sandy par (which is a big deal), there were tons of putts missed and chunked chips and shanked pitches. It’s like everytime I get into the 50 yards zone, I die. It comes to a point where for a par 5 if I know I have a very low percentage to hit the green, I prefer to hit it to the 100m marker as opposed to the 30 meter distance. It’s either a full 60 degree or a putt. Anything in between and I lose 2 – 3 strokes. If I have a choice between a perfect lie behind a greenside bunker I 100% wish that it was in the bunker instead.

So the journey continues. We still haven’t played any new course although we are plotting to go to Kota Seriemas in Nilai soon. The green fee is so expensive though – RM200 or more, and everytime that happens, we are reminded we can play for less than RM100 at courses like Tropicana, Kota Permai, Glenmarie etc under our RHB card. It’s just a hard sell. But yes we will be making our way soon there so stay tuned.

Speaking of RHB card, there are few things I would like to point out. They have absolutely a disgraceful credit card points redemption for the infinite. I mean, compared to the other cards I have. There’s literally dog-poop for things you can redeem for. Secondly, recently they lost Mines as one of their golf course to play on. Fair enough, it’s far away, but its still a very nice course to play on and I miss it. Thirdly they now impose this RM3,000 minimum spending on your card to use the golf benefits. Now this might not be much, but when you have 3 – 4 credit cards you are juggling and other cards give you way better points redemption options, planting 3K each month on a card that only gives golf benefit means sacrificing your other points allocation.

Also, this RM3,000 per month is stupid. They count it from a cutoff date to another cutoff date – for instance 22nd of each month to the 22nd of next month. So if you spend RM20K on 23rd of that month, then your previous month’s 3K is not hit and you can’t play golf. I have a friend who spends almost 11 – 15K on the card but because sometimes he misses the cutoff, for that month he is ineligible despite spending that much. Note to RHB – look at spend patterns instead of just a cutoff date. It’s stupid.

Lastly – if you registered your players with RHB and if someone last minute have to pull out, RHB disallows it. This means you either have to pay for a non existent golfer or you beg the course to cancel and play 3 ball. Which usually should be fine – but my question to RHB is, why won’t you allow another RHB player to replace? Oh – because its too last minute and the club disallows it.

Digging deeper, this is not true.

I found out that RHB’s procedure is that if you cancel/replace a player less than 24 hours of a tee time, RHB doesn’t even bother trying to send the update to the golf club. They just block it, so it’s not that the club disallows it, it’s because of RHB stupid internal procedure. I told them, look, just fax the damn thing to the club for a player update and I will sort it out. No, says RHB, we can’t because our manager doesn’t allow it and does not understand what is customer’s experience. So go suck it. (not their words but our interpretation).

Don’t get me wrong, RHB has been very useful for us over the years – but recently tee times are getting very crowded and tough to get, even with a RM3000 minimum spend and we are looking for other bank’s cards to maybe give us a little more benefits than just golf. If anyone has any better experience with other bank cards, drop a note.

OK – let’s try to get a tee time at Kota Seriemas then and write a review!

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Tropicana Golf & Country Resort

Introduction

While I really doubt Gilagolf will ever be allowed to step foot into places like Sungai Long, Mines or Saujana (due to our irreverent way of describing and reviewing golf courses), another premier course entered our list, in addition to Clearwater, Palm Garden, Datai and KGNS. So far, no golf courses has reached the immortal status of the Gilameter, DAGTH (pronounced dak-the), short for Died and Gone to Heaven, the greatest accolade given to a course. The closest were Palm and Datai, falling just a point shy of the lower strata of DAGTH.

Enters Tropicana, a premier course, located in Petaling Jaya, considered one of the finest Malaysia has to offer in terms of course design and playability.

I’ve played there once before, and fared quite well, so when an invite came for us to have a go, we didn’t need to be asked twice.

Travel (5/5)

Immediately a 5. There’s no question asked. Prime spot, it took me only about 10 minutes to reach there. In fact, we would often go to the driving range to practice, so traveling is of no issue.

The easiest way there is to take the NKVE, headed to the Damansara toll. Right after the flyover to Bandar Utama, stay left and you’ll end up in the old road to Tropicana. From there, keep going straight, and turn right at the tee junction. You’ll go under a tunnel and right in front of you is the welcoming sight of the Tropicana archway. Beautiful.

Here’s a detailed map. Go ahead, click on it!

tropicana_map.jpg

Price (2/5)

Ah. This is where they lop of your head with an axe. Playing on a public holiday or weekends? Let’s skewer your throat over an open fire! RM190 for green fees. That’s the stab in your heart. RM25 for a twin sharing buggy (50 per buggy). That’s RM215 and a turn of the knife in your heart. Wait, there’s more. Just because we know you suck as a golfer, you’re forced to take a caddy at RM30. They’ve already taken out your heart with that. Lastly, you need to tip the darn caddie at least additional RM10, bringing your total to about RM230, RM240 over weekends. Don’t worry, we got a package!

At RM280!! We give you lunch and breakfast as well!

Who in the blue tarnation is going to be stupid enough to eat RM50 worth of food? Come on Tropicana, don’t be daft!!!

Did I pay that much? Nope. Someone was kind enough to bring me in for free, God bless his soul.

First thoughts

Morning dew covering the first tee, the sun peeking down on us, promising us a great day on a great course. Again, for goodness sakes, I pushed my tee shot right, but managed to recover for a one chip one putt for a par and we’re off.

First hole par means two things. One, you’re going to have one of your finest rounds ever. Two, you cannot take success and your subsequent holes will be filled with frustration and death. Guess which option I took?

The thing about playing on a public holiday is that the whole course gets jammed up. Tropicana, despite its premier status feels it more than the other courses like Rahman Putra. I don’t know why. Maybe too many rest stops is not good, because you get an idiotic uncle who wants to sit and eat.

Then, when you drive up, they quickly finish and run off to the tee box so they won’t let you through. In this way, we knew it was going to be long one.

Service (1/5)

You’d think a premier course like this would have great service right? Of course, everything expected is there; good maintenance, good facilities, easy check in. A small gripe is the loading area for golfers. We’re like sardines. There’s a small area where all the buggys are crammed into and all golfers jostle with each other like a market place. You’d think they come up with a smarter way to get golfers on the road. All it takes is one idiot who parks his buggy wrong and everyone is jammed up. It’s like the Malaysian highways who makes the roads so narrow despite having so much space. We just like our infrastructure and signs small and dainty you know.

My MAJOR gripe is the F&B. Sorry, if you say that food and beverages has nothing to do with the course, you tell the golfer who just crawled in at 12 noon looking for food and drink. You get him food and drink!!

My order took so long, I think my stomach gave up waiting and just started eating my own intestines. Serious. It took almost 45 minutes for my stupid Kueh teow to come.45 minutes! What’s up with the kitchen, man? An ominous 1, for a premier course, and gone with it hopes of being the first course with DAGTH status. Dang! Hurts me more than it hurts you, Tropicana. I thought you had a chance! Dang your service!

Fairways (5/5)

If you’re looking for a club who knows how to run their fairways, Trops gives the great lesson. I don’t believe I know of any other club offering such a great carpet of grass for us to hit from. It’s unfortunate I spent so little time on it. I hit a pathetic 4 fairways enroute to a 91, with 9 bogeys. But as the sun was shining down on the par 5 6th, it was just a brilliant picture to take. As the day wears on, the fairways got drier, firmer and it was just in superb condition. 5/5 definitely.

Greens (4/5)

Despite my par start, I had A LOT of problems with the greens. It wasn’t because they were slick or whatever, it was simply: what kind of speed is this? Some played fast, some slow, some medium: we just couldn’t get a grip on how to putt. I had 3 3 putts but it wasn’t the 3 putts that killed me. It was the missed par putts, when I was trying to get up and down. Statistically it’s 2 putts, but the short ones I missed for pars (at least 3) was enough to render me half crazy. I won’t say it’s entirely my fault for being a lousy putter, because the greens weren’t tip top as expected.

Rough (4/5)

I like the recovery options given by Trops. Now, it’s still a course that advocates OB (the mantra of the caddies are 50-50, boss). Amazingly, I don’t think I OBed any hole, although some were close. I struggled massively with my swing, trying to find the fairway but managed to pull myself together at the end for a good finish. If you’re not OBed, the recovery from bunkers and even the occasional water bank is possible. The bunkers are almost perfect except for a few holes that requires less bounce, more dig.

Aesthetics (4/5)

It’s very much like Palm, in a way it’s city pretty. That means that no matter how you look at the course, you know that it’s not exotic, it’s not filled with wildlife, it’s not natural. It’s like a beautiful English girl as opposed to a hot Latin woman. Both are beautiful; but the Latina like Catherine Zeta Jones or Jennifer Lopez are definitely a lot hotter than say, that chic that was in the Pirates of the Carribean. See, I can’t even remember her name. The one that looks like Winona Ryder. (Incidentally, what the heck happened to Winona Ryder?)

Memorable holes? For me, the 11th. Elevated tee box, my drive went almost 250m, soaring into the sky, seemingly never to fall back to earth. It’s also dangerous, because the 17th tee box is right at the 160-190m range for slicers. We almost killed a group there, our ball landing smack at where they were teeing off. An old white guy dressed in black, a’la Gary Player just stared at us, his face twisted in a frown even after I apologized. Get over it, old feller. Golf’s gonna be like this in our part of town. Or perhaps he’s just in a permanent catatonic stasis that sometimes people that age go into. Eat your vitamins while you’re young, little golfers!

Other than that, Hole 1 is a beautiful opening hole as well, requiring a carry and a lake on the left. The Par 3s are a little dull though, very much like Palm’s problem, so no perfect score here for Trops.

Fun Factor (4/5)

Struggling as massively as I was, it was hard to find fun. My putting was just tremendously off, at one time going 7 straight bogeys, missing a string of sitters that would have given me a whole lot of better score, and a prettier scorecard.

However things came together after missing another sitter on the 16th. A 12 footer curved in for par on the 17th and I yanked my tee shot so far left, it was flirting with OB. Just a foot away from OB, I was contemplating whether to go through the trees or punch out. At that point, I have already lost the little betting game we were having. Contrary to your expectations, I went the safe route and punched out to 130 – 135 meters to the flag.

Using my 9 iron, I stuffed the purest shot of the day. It started right and drew a little back in. It landed and practically danced around the hole before settling 15 inches from the cup. If there was a time where you want to shout ‘Get in the HOLE!’ This would have been the best time.

I started with a par, ended with a birdie. If we just closed our eyes to everything else between, hey, it was a pretty fun day in Tropicana.

Conclusion

If you have the money or someone offers to bring you in, Tropicana is a course you can never go wrong. The course is very well maintained, it is very easy to access, and it’s a guaranteed good fun. The pricing is always a pain point and unless you are Augusta, St Andrews or Pebble Beach, this will always be something we harp on. But looking beyond that, this is a course everyone should play, must play and will definitely enjoy playing. Go Trops!!

And oh, remember the golden rule of golf courses with 27 holes: Play 1st and 2nd nine; forget about the 3rd nine.

The good: Great conditions of green, fairways and rough; scenic holes built around mansions and wealthy township; easiest accessibility; guaranteed fun

The bad: Price makes you want to sell your own kidney; awful F&B services; loading bay is an accident waiting to happen; old white guys staring at you catatonically can be quite distressing.

The skinny: 29 of 40 divots (72.5%).

Tropicana Scorecard

tropicana.jpg

Tropicana Information

Address:
Jalan Kelab Tropicana,

47410 Petaling Jaya ,

Selangor, Malaysia

Contact: +603-78048888

Fax: +603-78043688

Website: http://www.tropicanagolf.com