This is a continuation of my RTW diary from December 2003.I also played nine holes on one of the islands golf courses. Before you all get too surprised to learn that I’m a golfer, then please don’t let me mislead you. I have only picked up a golf club once in the last 16 years. On Langkawi, there is little else to do apart from sunbathe on a beach.
How did it go? I lost my ball off the tee on the first and second holes. I hit my ball into water on the sixth, seventh, and eighth holes. The eighth was particularly bitter as I had managed on this hole for the first time to clear the first water trap, only to plough straight into the second one. I think I ended up in at least one bunker in every single hole. Not my afternoon!
Then I came across the ‘signature’ 19th hole. While the 19th hole in most clubs is the clubhouse, the 19th hole at Datai is really a hole that you can play as a freebie! It is beautifully set, where you tee up on the coast and drive across the Andaman Sea, with Thai Islands misty on the horizon and the green flashing tantalisingly some 130 metres across the water inlet.
Thankfully for me the tide was out as both my efforts fell short and I went paddling in the rock pools to recover my balls. Thankfully for everyone else on the island, I was the only golfer out on the course that afternoon, so my endless paddling in streams held up no-one but myself.
I also didn’t play the strictest of rules and I’m still not sure that it should have taken three and a half hours to manage 10 holes, but I enjoyed myself in the sunshine nonetheless. However I’m not golfing again until I’ve had some lessons to loosen up my swing… how do the professionals get the ball airborne from the fairway?! Still, driving the buggy was fun!
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