Prior to attending the CIMB Classic, 2 of my kakis and I had a round on the Garden Course at the Glenmarie Golf & Country Club. Glenmarie as we know, hosted the 1st Eurasia Cup held earlier this year. We were also deciding whether to play at Tropicana but settled with Glenmarie since we were attending the Titleist 915 demo at the driving range later in the evening.
I stayed at the Glenmarie Holiday Inn a month ago and had a nice view of the golf course which looked very good. We played on a week day and mind you, a non-member would have to fork out RM400.00+ (inclusive of buggy and caddy on twin sharing basis and tax) for a round of 18 holes. Rather pricey and coupled with the Eurasia credentials, I had high expectations of the course.
So off we went and so far so good. I was liking the course conditions (landscape and greens). But as we advanced, I realized there were a number of locations (further from view of the clubhouse) where the landscaping and conditions were less impressive.
Hole 3 for instance was a dog-leg right par 5 and I found some trouble on the left side off the fairway from the tee. Eventually, I found my ball just before the drain that runs on the left, on a patch of what I can only describe as unsightly 'grassless-clay-surface'. There were big patches of it too. I asked the caddy if it was 'GUR' and he shook his head.
No way was I going to try and hit or even punch the ball off the rough clay-like surface, so I took a penalty drop. Sure, better players wouldn't find themselves in that spot, but I personally didn't expect to see such conditions. At least it wasn't on the fairway I suppose.
The course layout I have to say was quite challenging and even though I was having a bad putting day, I thought the greens were manageable. Bunkers weren't as fluffy but I put that down to the constant afternoon rain KL has been getting of late.
My ratings:-
Course conditions - 3.5/5 (fairways and greens were in good condition. But I personally think that courses like Kota Permai and Sungai Long are way better)
Course difficulty - 3/5
Caddy rating - 3/5/ (Our young male caddy, whilst hardworking was not very knowledgeable)
Club house facilities - 4/5
13.5/15 - Worth playing once.
No comments:
Post a Comment