Back at last!!

My good friend and golf kaki (golf buddy) has come back at last!! She had returned to Taiwan last December and is now back in Kota Kinabalu.


She is most happy and relieved to be back as she missed the open spaces and good air quality here. We couldn't wait to return to the golf course where we usually have our morning round of 9 holes.

She says the atmosphere in the area where she lives in Taiwan is not conducive to restful sleep at night and by day the noise of the traffic and the crowds make her realise how beautiful Sabah is by comparision. The open spaces, the quality of life always make her want to return to Sabah whenever she is in Taiwan.

This morning we had our round of golf but not the full 9 holes as we wanted to take it easy on our first day's game after a long layoff of three months. It was a beautifully cool morning, the ideal weather for golf. The fairways were quite wet and the grass quite long as there had been heavy showers every afternoon lasting for a few hours. It's quite difficult to pull a trolley with a bag full of woods and irons plus balls, on wet ground. It was a very, very enjoyable morning although my ball did not go very far for the first few holes. The grip, the stance, addressing the ball etc..... these were rusty already.

However Tina got her game in place very quickly and had a decent score.

Me?????? Don't ask!! I played more like a newbie to the game. Anyway it's more for the exercise.

The doctor said that brisk walking builds bone density and this is why we complete our 9 holes in less than one and a half hours!! Our balls are always on the fairway so we don't waste time looking for them and we walk very fast, pulling our trolleys. This lets us build up strength and I believe it also helps our cardiovascular system.

Our home course, the Sabah Golf & Country Club, is very beautiful and it is a walking course although a buggy track has been built to accomodate those who wish to use buggies. When the weather is hot, and the fairways dry, we are able to take the buggy on course. This makes playing 18 holes a pleasure as the course can be very taxing if you walk all the 18 holes as it has very undulating fairways.

Walking uphill is no joke when you are pulling a trolley

with a bag filled with 14 clubs and at least 6 balls.

On certain holes, it is quite easy to go OB ( out of bounds) or lose the balls in the ponds. When the ground is wet, the ball can get plugged and can't be seen if the grass is long.

After a round of golf, we usually feel very fresh, despite being tired. We usually go our different ways after cleaning our equipment and rinsing the mud from our shoes, cheerily looking forward to another round the next morning. We tee off as soon as there is enough light to see where the ball lands, the only two early birds of the fairer sex. The rest are the male of the species, most of whom also pull their own trolleys. There are less than a handful of caddies at our club but that's no problem as buggies are available.