GuiLin MerryLand Golf Club

It's been a week since the tournament was over but pardon me if it is only now that I finally write a word about it. Then again, I don't really like to write much about the golf courses that I've played since:

1. Most of the readers here are non-golfers i.e. every golf course will look the same and as such, it would appear that I would be rehashing blog entry after blog entry, if I were to start a golf course review. "It's always Tee-Fairway-Green-Hole. It's all the same!"
   
   
2. I may get death threats since there are people who thinks that golf courses are bad for the environment! But... but... it got a lot of trees and grass what!!
   
   
3. The skeptics out there would think that it is a stupid game for a guy to chase after a little white ball all over the prairie into a little white cup. Hmm... come to think of it, all games are dumb by that rationale. Football, 22 running after 1 ball to chase it into a giant big net. Basketball, 10 men running after 1 ball to chase it into a little net in the sky. Squash, 2 guys whacking a ball into the wall repeatedly. Formula 1 racing, cars going in circles. Monopoly, a infinite stalemate if every player has one of each other's colour and refuses to trade, hence nobody is able to build nor do anything except going around in circles and collect $200 when passing GO.
   
   To them, I say come on! It's just a game. Don't take it so seriously can?

Anyway, I thought I blog about this golf course because of this one particular hole (see above) which I thought was pretty interesting.

Standing on the tee and you are straight away intimidated with a vast body of water that you need to clear. 180 yards to clear. In theory, it shouldn't be a problem considering my average drive is 250 yards with the occasional 300 when the planets aligned. Still, the psychological impact of this giant pool of water can really throw you off.

So there I was, teeing up and sizing up my route strategy in my head as I addressed the ball. A slow calculated pull back before a relaxed down swing and off goes the ball flying straight across the water. It was a good shot considering the fact that the ball only started to descent after clearing the lake. Happy!

What happened next was the fun part, you need to take a ride in the boat to get across. There is a boatman hiding in the bushes while you tee-off to avoid getting hit. Yup, that's his job, to ferry golfers across the lake.

Ok, so it was fun and novel the first time round but the boat was really really s-l-o-w and the boatman seemed to struggle to keep a straight path as we found ourselves veering to the right due to the wind.

Second time round, I told the rest of the guys to go ahead as they still seemed pretty eager to hop onto the boat but I took the golf buggy and drove around the lake instead. Even though, it was a longer path to go around, I got across much faster for by the time, I got across to my ball, they were still halfway  in the middle of the lake, struggling to make it across.

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