Posts Tagged Palm Island

Another mediocre day on the golf course. Ups and down…the greens (if you can call them that) were terrible. Sandy, bumpy and some had patches without any grass. Looked like the “browns” they play in desert golf. Even those roll truer. Anyway, this was for the United Hearts Charity Golf Tournament at Palm Island, China. On the first hole (our seventh) of the Lake Course (327 yard Par 4) our drive left us 125 to the center of the green. Faced with a back pin position and a fairly strong wind straight in our faces, we hit a 7 iron and got it three feet past the hole. This was tricky, a downhill putt on a bumpy green…hmmm. Had to be aggressive to hold the line but couldn’t hit too firm otherwise I could have ended up way down the slope if we missed the hole. A good firm tap and I trickled down into the hole.

100326 Palm Island, Lake 1 (Par 4)

Another invitation, this time by Golf Magazine (Hong Kong) for their 7th Anniversary. It was also R’s birthday too. No better way to celebrate one’s birthday than to play golf.

Being R’s birthday, I think he had everything going for him. We managed three birdies again. First one was at the Lychee Course’s A2 (Par 4). A safe 5-iron kept the ball in front of the massive bunker that spans the entire fairway. A well struck 4-hybrid left a 15 footer for the first birdie of the day.

Have you ever heard of snooker golf? Well, on the Lychee Course’s A5 (Par 5), a good drive left just over 210 yards to the pin and going with the wind, a 3-hybrid left it about 15 yards from the front edge of the green. A fellow competitor’s ball was pin high to the right of the flag and thinking that we won’t hit him, we chipped with an 8-iron. It was hot and right of the hole with the momentum to end up at the back of the green or even off. But it struck the stationary ball and ricocheted to just a foot from the hole for a tap in birdie. Could have been an eagle if it went in!

Again on a Par 5, the C2 hole (River Course) had strong winds in our favor. At 485 yards, we must have hit a 290 yard drive as we were left with 193 to the center of the green. Thank you wind. Afraid that we might over shoot the green, we played an 180 yard shot with the 4-hybrid and left it in the greenside bunker. After a nice bunker shot, we had a 12 foot downhill putt for the birdie.

Happy Birthday R. I’m sure my three birdies made your day very happy.

Oh BTW, we won the nett champion with a nett score of 69 using the New New Peoria Handicap System.

091111 Palm Island, Lychee A2 (Par 4)

091111 Palm Island, Lychee A5 (Par 5)

091111 Palm Island, River C2 (Par 5)