Golf and Family Life 

I am, unfortunately, the only golfer in my family so far. My wife hates to be out in the hot sun hitting a small white ball that only ocasionally does what you expect it to do, and my lovely daughters, while I did buy them a junior starter set, their idea of golf is trying to hit balls in a cozy driving range while giggling hysterically. Actually going out in the hot sun for 18, or even 9 holes ? Forget it, there's something good on Nickelodeon, bye dad !! So for me going away to golf is always a constant struggle of balancing my family's schedule with mine. You might be wondering why I mention 9 hole golfing a few times in this column: because that's how I get my golf fix. Most weekends, after the birthday parties, shopping trips to the mall and Tae Kwon Do lessons are finished, I only had time to rush off to the local 9 hole course and get the golf addiction out of my system.

But my wife had one very good excuse for not golfing with me or even wanting to pick up the game: she said "You will find everything that I'm doing wrong with golf, and you WILL get on my nerves". Ah yes, she knows me well after 3 kids and 10 years of marriage. And will I do that if she does ever pick up a club and play a round with me ? You betcha. I would not be able to resist the temptation. And will I get in Big Trouble afterwards ? Most definitely. Which is why, everything else considered, it's probably good that she doesn't golf.

However, I golf regularly with a couple of golfing husband and wife teams who have nongolfing kids, and observing them play and talking with them, I realized a few interesting things. First, it's pretty obvious that most women treat golf more as a social activity, while guys treat it like a sport. Guys get stressed about their swing and start to replay David Leadbetter videos on their head (at least I do), ladies shrug off a bad shot and move on. This is why husbands drive their wives nuts when they play golf. The wife hits a bad shot, and she just said oh well, but the husband will LEAP into action and start to demonstrate right then and there exactly what part of the wife's wrist cock or whatever that was wrong on that last stroke. This is of course a sweeping generalisation, but I'm sure I will get more than a few nods agreeing me out there. But even watching them play, I noticed that the female half of the couples usually played with much more relaxation and flow without the husband around, and I think it will be true vice versa. Not to go into a deep scientific discussion about how the psychology of marriage impacts golfing performance, but I think my wife is right after all :)

Now, what happens with the whole family golfs ? Wendy, Let's Golf Asia's founder, is a good friend of mine and she's lucky enough to have her husband Ernie and son Rafael as golfers as well. I recently went on a golfing trip with them to Austin Hills, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and I was the subject of a well-coordinated attack by her whole family. Just kidding, but since all of them are better golfers than yours truly, specially Rafael (or 'Raf' for short), it was pretty much a humbling but fun experience. Raf and I shared a buggy and kept score for each other, so I can confirm that Raf beat me 16 holes out of 18 but he was extremely nice about it, even as seeing his extremely fluid swing brings a tear to my eye, and I'm sure my swing must make him go ROTFL and LOL, to use today's hip language. Ah, to be 14 again with a driver in your hand. I told him to please please keep his eyes closed when I swing, I don't want to scar him for life. Having the whole family there makes me quite envious, it is pretty obvious that golf is best enjoyed with company, and if the company are the people you love the most in your life, it could be a wonderful experience.  Picture on the left L to R : ( Raf, Me and Ernie)

Even if the courses we played were pretty challenging (we played the Austin and Resort courses) and had a lot of elevation changes, we had a good day. Austin hills was literally built on a hilly area and the course designers incorporated these into the course design, making the course very interesting. Almost all of the holes were either hitting uphill or downhill, with the 1st hole of the Resort course having the teebox way above the fairway far below for a spectacular tee shot. Not an easy course, but if you want variety, this is it. My only saving grace for the day was on the 7th hole of the Hill course (see left). The others took pity on me and let me tee off first, but I think it was probably for comic relief as the 7th is a picturesque signature hole with an island green. Ever look at a scorecard and see a short par 3 and wonder what kind of horrible challenge the course designers have kept for that 'short' hole ? Well this is one of them. The picture shows me contemplating how the heck am I going to do this hole. I've had 14 holes so far that day, my mental state is in a disarray, my shirt was untucked.. but somehow I then managed to hit my 6 Hybrid to about 3 m from the pin, salvaging me par. The effect of seeing the impossible must have unsettled my flightmates, as they subsequently  sacrificed some balls to the water :) So this hole left me with a great feeling...

But the rest of the day was mostly spent like the picture on the left: Raf seeing another one of his drives streak down the middle and me looking down at my love handles regretting a misspent youth, too bad I didn't pick up the game when I was 14. Actually I was a pretty unathletic 14 year old so I am sure I couldn't do half as well as Raf did (and does) but I gotta come up with an excuse :)

 Austin Hills is but a short drive away from Singapore so definitely worth a day trip, or even better if you consider our Swing It at Johor Tour which combines a day at Austin Hills with another day at Pulai Springs.

Anyway, even after having my ego handed back to me on a platter, I had a great time at Austin Hills. I can see that Wendy and Ernie her husband are very justifiably proud of their son, and it is my wish that maybe one day my daughters will prefer a driver to a cable remote :) Moms and Dads, do start to influence your kids to pick up the game. I cannot think of a better way to spend 3-4 hours of quality time together.

-Himawan Prajogo, proud father of 3 girls.. any one of which might still prove to be Asia's answer to Annika and Lorena :)