Indonesia, Bandung : Giri Gahana Golf and Country Club

Alas our Bandung Golf Tour was coming to an end.

On our last day in Bandung, the crew teed up at the highly rated Bandung Giri Gahana Golf and Country Club.

Designed by Michael Coates and opened in 1989, the 18 hole course is touted as one of the best courses in the region and is part of a luxury resort too. 

There were plenty of golfers during the weekend so we had to tee off really early. Think our tee time was 7.15am if I recall correctly and the weather was fantastic too.

Unlike Dago Indah, the marshalls here kept a tight ship. From the buggy centre, they would announce your names and assigned buggy over a PA system (I don't necessarily think it's appropriate, but it works) and the starter at the first tee and roving marshalls made sure everyone was playing on time.

From the get go, I was taken by the very good course conditions. Fairways (bermuda grass) were well maintained and nearly carpet like generally. patches of brown in places (due to the lack of rain) but overall were very good. Equally good were the greens which were quick and undulating.

The front 9 had a flatter layout compared to the back 9 which had plenty of elevation and undulation which made for an interesting contrast. Club selection and distances were key crossing over which is why having a good knowledgeable caddy is crucial if you want to score. 

If it's one thing I have learnt about playing on foreign courses, it's to listen to your caddy. Entirely different story if your caddy is giving you crazy putting reads though.

Playing the front 9 was pretty fun. With the dry and flat fairways on some holes, we were getting plenty of rolllll on the ball. Indulge me as I digress into a bit of commentary. 

I think it was the first Par 5 where I hit a pretty good drive onto the fairway. I was left with some 230 meters to the green (so says my caddy) and because I wasn't super confident with the 3 wood, I thought I would just whack the ball close with the 4 hybrid (24* which I can hit 180m on a good day) and aim for par. 

With eye on the ball, I swung and hit it perfect. I watched as the ball sailed through the air and as it landed in the distance, I could see it bouncing and rolling and my kakis were cheering "two on!!" I had my doubts and even my caddy wasn't sure where it had ended up. 

So imagine my surprise and sheer delight when we made our way to the green and find my ball safely on the dance floor. That was some roll indeed! I was left with a lengthy eagle putt which I left a few feet short but managed to convert the birdie which is always nice. Still, the highlight was getting home in 2 on a Par 5, which I had never pulled off prior.

Anyhow, it set a pretty good tone for the day and I was pretty satisfied with my round. 

The temperature increased as we progressed and was pretty hot by the time we finished. So it was time for a deserving shower and lunch as we waited for our comrades to complete their rounds.

 

The food variety and quality of food was pretty good too. After lunch, it was back to Jakarta where we would spend the night before flying back the next day.  

To the ratings!

Value : As with the other two courses, we had a travel agent arrange our ground travel, accommodation and golf in a lump sum, so I am not quite sure how much we paid for the golf. 

Staff : 5/5

Top notch service across the board. From the bag drop off attendants to the course marshals, locker room attendants and even wait staff at the cafe, the staff at Giri Gahana performed their duties well with a smile.

Though I have to say, I wasn't too fond of the whole announcing names over the PA system at the buggy centre though. 

Course conditions : 4/5

Very well maintained overall. Fairways and Greens were in great shape.

Aesthetics : 4/5

A beautiful course. Nice landscaping, plenty of trees and nice surrounding views. Really nice.

Amenities : 4/5

The club house and resort had plenty of facilities, it was just a shame we didn't have much time to explore. Locker rooms were clean and spacious. A vast improvement from what we were offered at Dago Indah.

Experience : 5/5 

Experience is subjective but even then it takes alot for a 5/5 experience. 

But I think a number of factors contributed to the fantastic day of golf I had. Good golf course, excellent weather, great company in friends and having a good round (can't forget the "getting home in 2 on the Par 5") overall. Would love to come back here again.

Total score : 22/25

Indonesia, Bandung : Dago Indah Golf and Country Club

Day 2 of our Bandung golf tour took us north of Bandung. Established as a 9 hole course in 1917, the Dago Indah Golf course is one of the oldest golf courses in Indonesia. The course was subsequently expanded to 18 holes in 1994.

The course measures about 5,677 yards and the relatively short par 70 course, is made up of 2 par 5s, 4 par 3s and 12 par 4s. If memory serves correctly, there was a 90 yard par 3 on the back 9, which was interesting. 

As we entered the club compound, it slowly became clear that the overall condition of the course (clubhouse, restrooms, buggy centre & cafe - all housed in one building, golf buggies) lived up to its "oldest course" moniker. Refurbishment / Upgrade anyone?

First impressions of the golf course? It reminded me of the narrow and undulating fairways at the Prisons Golf Club in Kuching . 

Except here, Dago Indah made up for the shortage of length with very narrow fairways, really steep terraces and undulatinggg terrain.

The Kaki Golf crew.

Tee box at Hole 10

Tee box at Hole 1

Remember I said steep terraces? This is an example of how steep the terraces were and my mate and I had the good misfortune of hooking our drives there. Oh and this was just one of the many steep terraces mind you.

Quite a climb up and down I tell you.

It's a challenging hole this one and you can sort-of see the layout from the picture below (left of the buggy track). View is from the green so the terrace appear on the right side.

Yeap, there is always that one solitary tree about middle of the fairway to mess up your drive.

And remember I mentioned narrow fairways? This is the par 4, 13th. You can't tell but the fairway is super narrow! Couldn't have measured wider then 50 meters and to make things even harder, it bends dog leg right! So if you hook or draw your drive just a tad over, trouble. It played too much on my mind and naturally, I ended up driving it left into the woods. Whoopee!

As we concluded our round. we made it back to the club house in time as the rain started to pour to cap off a challenging afternoon of golf.

To the ratings!

Value : We had a travel agent arrange our ground travel, accommodation and golf in a lump sum, so I am not quite sure how much we paid for the golf. 

Staff : 3/5

Nothing out of the ordinary. My caddy did a good job but a few of my kakis didn't share the same luck.

Course conditions : 2.5/5

The fairways were wet in places and didn't seem very well maintained. The greens unfortunately were crap. Brown / bald patches throughout. I think there were a few greens that were refurbished but the majority of them were in bad shape and it was no fun seeing your ball bounce and veer severely offline when you putt or chip onto the green. Shame really and don't be fooled by the pictures you see on their website.

Aesthetics : 3.5/5

At the risk of sounding snobby, this was no private / member's club. Landscaping was unrefined and minimalistic at best. Nice views though.

Amenities : 2.5/5

As I mentioned earlier, the clubhouse,registration,buggy centre, locker room and cafe were all housed in one building in need of major refurbishment. The Pro shop was in a tiny room within the cafe and couldn't have been bigger then 6ft X 6ft. I have to say though that it was pretty well stocked. 

Apparently, there are refurbishment / upgrading works in the plans.

Similar to the Mountain View Course, there were no half way houses either. Just people setting up make shift stalls on a couple of holes with a small selection of drinks and snacks.

Buggies were pretty old too.

Experience : 2.5/5 

Overall, Dago Indah provided a good challenge. If you're having one of those slice / hook days, make sure you bring plenty of balls.

In dire need of proper maintenance and upgrading, the experience at Dago Indah was rather meh. Won't be visiting the course again in future unless they upgrade and refurbish the place in general. It has the potential to be a good course, just really lacking in maintenance at the moment.

In spite of the above, I managed a 91 (5 under) which is becoming increasingly rare in my game.

Total score : 14/25

Whoopee!~

A while back, the Asian Tour ran a contest on their facebook page.

All you had to do was download their Asian Tour app and take a screen shot. Up for grabs? 2 copies of The Asian Tour Yearbook 2015 and guess what, I WON!!

Got this in the mail a few days ago and I am stoked!

And what makes this book different from others? 

Autographs from Thai golf legend, Thongchai Jaidee and Asian Tour player Kiradech Arphibarnrat! How awesome is that! Whoopee!!

A really good and quality publication. Detailed and comprehensive.

Going to enjoy reading it and you bet it's going to make an awesome addition to the memorabilia collection.

Thank you once more Asian Tour!

Indonesia, Bandung : Mountain View Golf Club

(This post is longgg overdue. Talk about procrastination!)

It was time for Kakigolf annual golf trip and this year, the crew made the trip to Bandung, Indonesia over the Gawai period.

I had never been to Indonesia prior, so I was pretty excited. After landing in Jakarta, we were greeted by our friendly tour guide and bus attendant and made our way to Bandung. 

The journey usually takes 4 hours but the 'famous' Indonesian traffic jam caught up with us and we arrived after some 5 hours.

Checked into the Gino Ferucci hotel (which was nice and quaint) and had an early night for our early tee off at the Mountain View Golf Club.

"Mountain View is a par 72 hole championship golf course measuring 5,583 metres from the back tee markers. The layout is made up of 5 par threes, 5 par fives and 8 par fours. Do not be fooled by the length as every tee shot will present a unique and challenging test on your acruacy skills. With the terrain being very undulating it allows for specatcular tee shots into fairwys and grees providing many vantage positions throughout the layout overlooking the valley and mountains. The residentail areas throughout the design are tastfully positioned throughout and not intrusive to arrouse golfers concerns. The design also incorporates multiple tees on each hole to accommodate players of all abilities and provide a variety of ways to play the hole to reward risk and penalise at the same time."

I will let the pictures do the talking this round.

The weather was very nice. Tad chilly but it warmed up as we progressed through.

Balls anyone? These were very clean and nicely packed. The Pro v1s in particular were very reasonably priced at RP100,000 for 12 (approx. RM30.00 if I recall correctly) and I should have bought more in hind sight. 

This was a nice hole. Par 3, elevated tee box with the green far below.

Value : We had a travel agent arrange our ground travel, accommodation and golf in a lump sum, so I am not quite sure how much we paid for the golf. 

Staff : 5/5

Top notch. From the bag attendants to the caddies, the staff at Mountain View were very professional.

Course conditions : 4/5

Course conditions were good overall. Greens in particular were quick. 

Aesthetics : 3.5/5

Not a 'manicured' course per se, so there was a mix of modern landscape blended with the natural surrounding. Nice views but nothing to really shout about.

Amenities : 4/5

Clubhouse was good and well equipped. But there was no half way house which was rather surprising. Drinks were available from a few small makeshift (read : wooden hut like) stalls operated by outsiders I assume. 

Experience : 4/5 

No complaints about the weather and golf so it was a good experience. 

Total score : 20/25