Charity Birdie @ Kau Sai Chau, Hong Kong
We were invited to the EFG Bank Young Golfers’ Foundation / HKGA Charity Golf Day 2010 to play at the South Course at Kau Sai Chau, Hong Kong. This charity event was to provide additional support for elite young golfers in Hong Kong and provide further incentive for the young golfers to perform well when they represent Hong Kong overseas.
We got to play with junior Leon D’Souza and got off to a good start. Started on the back nine and parred the first four holes! Then on our 17th hole, the Par 4 8th, we hit a good tee shot to about 90 yards to the pin. With strong right to left winds we took the 56 degree wedge and aimed for the center of the green. Pushed slightly, I headed straight for the flag and overshot it a bit. Just pin high off the right edge of the green, we opted to putt instead of chip. A firm and confident stroke hit smack in the center of the hole. This also contributed an additional HK$300 to the charity cause. We also managed to get the best gross score for the day. All for a good cause.
100622 Kau Sai Chau, South Course #8 (Par 4)
Rare Birdie on Ruby 1, Discovery Bay, Hong Kong
Ruby 1 at Discovery Bay is not a birdie hole. Normally we would be satisfied going away with a bogey. Played as our 10th hole, we hit a splitting drive up to the 100 yard mark (from the yellow tees) just into the first cut on the right. A 9-iron shot me high up in the air to the elevated green and landed dead on 10 inches from the hole. The short putt almost missed and I caught the left edge and swirled around the whole hole before dropping into the cup. A birdie nonetheless.
100530 Discovery Bay, Ruby 1 (Par 4)
Birdie – Pete Dye Course, Mission Hills, China
This was Pete Dye’s first course in China and only Chartered Diamond (highest level) members of the Mission Hills Golf Club are entitled to play here. Of course it helps to know a Chartered Diamond member too. We’ve played all the original 10 courses and this is our first time on this course. We heard that it was difficult, but this was stupid difficult. The greens are severely undulating and the holes cut in the most unreasonable places. Can you believe putting uphill and stopping hole high two inches from the cup and have the ball roll back to where you started from, or even further? CRAZY.
Anyway, we managed to squeeze in a birdie on hole 12. This 387 yard (from the blues) dogleg left Par 4 had long and wide fairway bunkers on the left, begging for me to get into. And luckily I avoided them, but instead managed to get into one of the small right hand side ones…R didn’t seem to be very happy though. Nevertheless, we were on a clean flat lie with about 150 yards to the front hole location. A nice clean hit with a 6 iron landed just on the front part of the green, leaving a 15 footer uphill. The greens were much faster than the 8.2 Stimpmeter reading that was recorded. But fortunately after several holes, we managed to get a hold of the speed and after a good read and stroke, in I went.
100525 Mission Hills - Pete Dye, Hole 12 (Par 4)
100525 Mission Hills - Pete Dye, Hole 12 (Par 4)
Birdie – Discovery Bay, Hong Kong
The greens were finally in better conditions at Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. They were damn slow, but at least they were rolling true…finally. We were playing the Composite course (Diamond/Jade) on our front nine and our birdie landed on the fourth hole (Diamond 8), a Par 3 playing about 160 yards to a back hole location. One on one putt. This was our first birdie in more than a month…hope that the next one doesn’t have to wait so long.
100516 Discovery Bay, Diamond 8 (Par 3)
Birdies on Temporary Greens at Discovery Bay, Hong Kong?
Many may frown at holes with temporary greens. But our experience during our last round resulted in a birdie and an eagle, both on temporary greens! So today we were faced with two more temporary greens and the result was amazing…two more birdies!
First one was on Ruby 4 (Par 4), where a 250 yard drive left us only 65 yards to the temporary green. A 60˚ wedge left me with a downhill nine footer with a severe right to left break. One putt.
The next temporary green was on the Par 3 8th, also on Ruby. It was another foggy day at Discovery Bay and so we couldn’t see the green. What we thought was too right actually right on the small green and we were faced with a three foot but bumpy downhill putt…bounced left and then right to make it into the hole. One putt.
Seems like we’ll embrace temporary greens from now on.
100411 Discovery Bay, Ruby 4 (Par 4)
100411 Discovery Bay, Ruby 8 (Par 3)
