KGPA golf course

Played in KGPA golf course last Friday. Many golfers might not know KGPA. KGPA stands for Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam Malaysia.It is located in Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur. It is a golf course specially for the government servants.

The golf course has 3 9 holes course. Namely, the Hill, the Lake and the Forest. I played in the Hill and Lake course. The golf package is RM120.00 per person including Green Fee, Buggy and light dinner.

I have heard from many friends that the golf course is very badly maintain. They have very bad experience playing there. But to my surprise, I and most of my golf buddies found the golf course was in an excellent condition.

First of all, the club house is big and clean. The golf course is very well maintain and the greens are in very good condition. We played the Hill and the Lake course. As you can imagine, the Hill course is full of undulating hills and the Lake course has some lakes (not that many).

Most of us played very well and enjoy the course very much. I recommend golfers to try it out.

Play in Seri Selangor

I played golf in Seri Selangor yesterday afternoon. The green fee is RM60 and the buggy is RM30 for each player. It is about RM107.50 per person including insurance and tax.

I and my golf buddies were very disappointed with the condition in Seri Selangor. The fairway has lots of dry patched and many places are bald without grass. It was quite difficult to hit when the ball fell into the bald spot.

The 1st nine is slightly longer than the 2nd nine. The green speed is quite slow except for a few holes that are fast going down hill. I managed to played 6 pars in the 2nd nine but only manage a 47 gross in the 1st nine.

Seri Selangor is going to have an Asian golf tournament this coming August. I don’t think they have enough time to make the course into a tournament quality course.

We will not go back to play in Seri Selangor again until the course is in better condition.

A'Formosa Golf Resorts, Malacca

Played in A’Formosa Golf Resorts yesterday. There are three nine-hole courses. We played the Crocodiles and Palm course and the one we did not play is called the Rockies course.

There are live crocodiles in the Crocodiles course and if I remember correctly, there was a golfer hurt by the crocodile when he tried to retrieve his ball inside the crocodile pond. The player later sued the golf course management but lost the case.

The green fee including buggy is only RM88 per person. However, it is compulsory to hire a caddy which is RM40 per caddy. All the caddies are from China. I understand that most caddies in the southern part of Malaysia are from China. This is to attract the golfers from Singapore.

Due to the dry season lately, the fairway is very hard and the ball runs a long way. The management did a very good job to the green. The green is very good and the roll is very true.

I played very well on the palm course and manage to play 2 over 38 gross. In the second nine, I only manage to get 3 pars but on the last hole, I holed a birdie putt from more than 30 feet.

It was an enjoyable round of golf.

Glenmarie Valley Course

Second nine of valley course is completed. The 1st nine will only be done by end of this year.

The new valley course is very much different from the old valley course. There are a lot of sand bunkers. There are more than 5 sand bunkers in every hole. The green is also very large and undulating.

Currently, the grass on the fairway are not very mature. Players are allowed to have prefer lie. The greens are very hard and fast. Ball landed on the green will usually roll to the back. It is challenging to putt on the green because it is long, fast and undulating.

I will try to take some pictures to post here when I play there again.

Golf Swing

I like watching golf Pros teaching golf swing in the television. The golf swing that they taught and the tips they gave are interesting. I learned what the Pros taught and try it out in the driving range. One day I will try out the backswing the Pro taught and the next day I will try the downswing that another Pro taught.

After trying many types of swing and learning the tips the Pros gave, my swing was getting from bad to worst. In a round of golf, I have many different types of swing. If I hit the ball to the right, I will try to change my swing so that I wouldn’t hit to the right. Then when the ball started going to the left, I would change the swing again to correct the problem. My handicap started going up from 13 to 15 and I have been losing regularly to my golf buddies.

Then for the last 2 months, I started losing my driving distance. I tried to swing harder and harder and the driving distance was getting shorter. I am driving like 20 meters behind all my golf buddies.

In my last post, I mentioned that I have changed my driver shaft thinking that it may be the problem. However, after meeting the Pro in RGT Col. Lim, I realized that my golf swing was all wrong after trying so many types of swings learning from the television.

I have taken 2 lessons from Col. Lim going back to the basic swing. I have readjusted my backswing and the downswing. The swing that Col. Lim taught me was not too difficult to learn because my previous good swing was quite similar.

From now, I will not learn from the television again. Better see a Pro if the swing is out.

Golf Driver Shaft

After a few games with my new TM Burner driver, I noticed that the driving distance was not very good. It was even shorter than my old Callaway X driver. I was always 20 to 30 meters behind my golf buddies. There was not much power in my golf swing. My new TM Burner driver was not giving me the distance even though I have hit the ball solid. Realized that something was not right, I decided to check out my driver with Mr. Siva in RGT club fitting section.

Putting my club on a frequency machine, Siva said that my driver shaft is a stiff shaft and not a regular shaft as shown on the shaft itself. In fact it is almost nearer to x-stiff. This is the problem with off the counter driver, the shaft quality control is not good.

I decided to shift my Fujikura E150 driver shaft from my Callaway to the TM Burner. I also fitted a new grip with rib. I always like the feel of rib in the grip.

The TM Burner shaft was 46.5 inches and I have asked Siva to cut my newly fitted shaft to 45". After fitting the shaft the TM Burner is now a regular flex shaft.

I have tested the driver using the pratice mat in RGT with swing monitor. The driver felt very good and the club face contact was very solid. However, the teaching Pro Col. Lim said that my swing speed is too low. My swing speed is only between 89 to 92 mph. He said that I must try to increase my swing speed to around 100 mph. Well need to see Col Lim sometime soon.

Tested ProV1

Tested the Titleist ProV1 already. The ball is good for short game and putting. I could make the ball stop with 1 to 2 hops when landing on green but could not do any back spin (skill not good). However, the driving distance is shorter than the Bridgestone e6 that I often use.

The advantage of using ProV1 as compare to other cheaper balls is not very much. The price for ProV1 09 model is 10% more expensive than the older model. I don't think I will continue using the ProV1 balls.

I have also tried out the Taylormade Burner TP balls. The balls is quite good. Driving distance is about the same as the Bridgestone e6 but the ball flight is much higher. The ball would not roll upon landing on the fairway. I think the ball has alot of backspin.

Need to try out other balls. Else I will continue using the Bridgestone e6 or e6+ replace e6 and 10% more expensive :(

Golf Balls

During the Maybank Malaysian Open we saw many pros able to stop the ball on the green and sometime manage to spin the ball back. I was told by my golf buddy that only expensive balls can do that.

My golf buddy said that the best ball to use is the Titleist ProV. Few of my golf buddies is using the ProV. I didn’t see their ball spin back during the game but their handicaps have come down. It also means that I have been losing to them very often.

Anyway, the reason I didn’t want to use ProV is because it is TOO EXPENSIVE. RM250 per dozen. I could buy 3 dozen of other brand.

I always think that I could adjust my game to suit the ball I use. If my ball can’t stop on the green then I just have to hit it a few meters before the pin and allow it to run in. When I chip, I will allow enough running distance to the pin. I always make sure I use the same brand of ball so that I can get used to the running distance. I have been using Bridgestone e6 for the past 2 years. The balls cost RM76 per dozen after discounts. Now in order to make more money, the manufacturer change e6 to e6+ and increase the price to RM90 per dozen (they always do that).
My golf buddies kept asking me to try the ProV. So I have bought 2 tubes last week and plan to try it out next week. I hope I could stop the ball on the green like the pros but on the other hand I am afraid I might get addicted to the ball after playing it and refuse to use other balls. In that case my wallet will bleed.

Taylormade R9 Driver

Taylormade R9 driver. The driver will be officially launched in 20 March 09 but many pros are already using it in the Malaysian Open.


Below is the description of the driver written in golf-monthly.co.uk

TaylorMade has announced the launch of its revolutionary new driver, the TaylorMade R9. By giving players the ability to manually change the face angle as well as the centre of gravity, the TaylorMade R9 represents a new dawn in golf club adjustability.

A specially engineered wrench allows players to change the face angle, lie and loft into one of eight different positions. Importantly, when the face angle closes the loft increases to ensure optimum carry. As the face angle opens the loft decreases to deliver a controlled, penetrating ball flight.

There are also three weight ports in the head (positioned in the heel, centre and toe) and it comes with one 16 gram and two one gram weights. Players can use the same wrench to change the position of the weights promoting different flight shapes.

By combining the adjustability of the face with moveable weight technology, the TaylorMade R9 has 24 different options so that every player should find a set-up that feels comfortable at address and delivers a consistent shape and trajectory.

The triangular shaped head of the R9 is just 420cc which TaylorMade describes as ‘modern and traditional’.

The TaylorMade R9 driver will be available with a new Fujikura Motore stock shaft. This features a High Inertia Tip that should generate more speed through impact for greater distance. However, there will also be a TP version of the R9 head that will be available in nine different custom shafts including the following: Aldila Voodoo, Mitsubishi Fubuki, Matrix XCON 5 and Matrix HD6.



I always like to use Taylormade driver. I used R580 and R7 and found the drivers to be very good and suit my swing very well. I have just bought a new 09 Burner Driver and I love it very much. The ball is straight and the distance is getting longer every time I use it. When you hit the ball straight every time, you will start to be more confident and swing the club faster to create longer drive. This is a fantastic driver and I recommend it to everyone.

For R9 there are so many things to adjust and I don’t think it is necessary. When I use R7, I only made the weight adjustment once and used it of a few years. So if we can buy a drive that suit you like the Burner I am using why bother to adjust it again.

Malaysian Open - final day

Malaysian Open is over and the winner is Anthony ........Kang and not Anthony Kim that we had expected. Anthony Kang is also from the USA and he played very well to tame the Cobra course.

Cobra course in Saujana is a difficult course. A little mistake can cause the player to lose the tournament. So you don't know who is going to win until the final putt is made. For the first 3 days no one notice Anthony Kang and he manage to move up to the top on the final day and win the tournament with 1 stroke.

I was hoping that Prayad Marksaeng would make the birdie putt on the 18 hole and go into playoff with Anthony Kang but his putt was not hard enough because the green was very slow. He has to share second with 3 other players.

Our Malaysian Pro, Danny Chia played 71 and finish at 11 position. So we still could not produce a Malaysian winner since the tournament started in 1962. Hopefully we could do it next year.

Malaysian Open - day 1

Went to Maybank Malaysian Open this afternoon. The crowd was quite big and the atmosphere was very good. I did not expect to see so many spectators on Thursday.

I knew that Anthony Kim’s tee off time is at 1.05pm so I went to the putting area at 12.15pm hopefully to see Anthony Kim there. And yes, he is practicing putting with his caddy. There were also Tongchai and Prayar practicing putting. I can’t get an autograph from him so I took some photos.














Anthony Kim started badly. He 3 putted the 10th hole and the 11th hole and then another few 3 putts along the way. He did not have a single birdie and finish with a score of 78. The weather was very hot and I think he is felling the heat.















The first day leader is a Korean young player name NOH Seung-yul. Photo above is him making his putt on the 9th hole. Many of the players were complaining that the green was slow. Anthony Kim said that the speed is probably 7 and not 10 as stated. I don't think NOH Seung-yul is complaining.

Seeing pros playing right in front of you is very different from watching it on TV. You can really see the way the player hit the iron into the ball and can hear the solid striking sound from the ball contact. The experience is worth standing under the hot sun and getting sunburn on my neck.

Every time when the player hit the ball into the green, most of the spectators would shout “oh!, over or long” but surprisingly, the ball would just stopped beside the pin and sometime it will spun back. When we hit our iron shot, we must land it at least 10 metre before the pin so that there are some room for the ball to bounce forward. How the pros play by attacking the pin is very different from ordinary players like us.

We just can’t play like them. They hit few hundred balls a day and their job is to play golf. These pros are very dedicated to their “job”. After the game many of them will immediately go to the driving range to practice their swing.

Saujana palm course is not very long and not too difficult to play but the players must always be on alert and focus. Any lost of concentration will be badly bitten by the cobra.

Maybank Malaysian Open

Malaysian Open is just around the corner. It will be played in Saujana Golf and Country Club this 12 – 15 February 2009.

The players include world number 10 Anthony Kim, Japanese star player Shingo Katayama and 2 times Malaysia Open champion Thongchai Jaidee. Of course don’t forget about our own players Ben Leong, Ian Steel and Danny Chai.

As a Saujana member, I will be given free entry to the Open and also all Saujana members are given a free pass for one of his guess.

I will properly go there on Thursday to look at the players up close without all the Sunday crowds. Or maybe I will be there every day:) I hope to get an autograph from Anthony Kim. While Anthony Kim was signing autograph for his fans after last week game, one of the television commentator said that his autograph might worth a lot of money after a few years time.

I personally think that Anthony Kim will be a very successful player in a few years time.

I am also looking forward to look at Ben Leong playing. He is our Malaysian upcoming star. If he train hard and think positive, he will be a great player someday.

Asian golf players are improving very fast. There are good player from India like Jeev Milkhir Singh, Thai players like Tongchai and Prayad Marksaeng, China player like Liang Wen Chong but I don’t know why no good player from Korea. Are most of the Korean players preferred to play in the US? But how many can actually play in the PGA which is so tough to get in.

Well, will write about the game later.

Cat and Dogs

Many people ask me how my dogs can be friend with a cat. Well, let me tell you how it all started.

This stray cat (we named him Kitty) used to roam in front of our house. My wife and children felt pity and often fed him food. Whenever the cat was around, our dogs will bark at the cat nonstop. However, since the dogs were tied, the cat was not afraid of the dogs.

After a few weeks, the cat became very brave. He started to come into our car porch and sat very near to the dogs. Since the dogs were tied, they were unable to reach the cat. The cat sat there looking at the dogs and the dogs as usual will bark at the cat continuously.

Whenever we untied the dogs, the cat will quickly run away.

This went on for a few weeks. Then one day, when we untied the dogs, the dogs quickly ran towards the cat. But the cat instead of running away, he stood there waiting to fight with the dogs. When the dogs were near him, he used his front paw to hit the dogs’ face.

After about a minute, the dogs started smelling the cat and the cat just stood there with his tail down and his back spine curl up. Then miracle happened, the dogs just walked away and played by themselves leaving the cat alone. Every few minutes, one of the dogs will run to the cat to smell him and the cat was always ready to use his paw for defence.

We let the dogs and the cat there for a few hours. Then we tried it again everyday. After a few days, the dogs and the cat have become good friends. They play and sleep together and the dogs offer the cat their food.

Now the stray cat has a home and three good friends.

I think the cat is very intelligence. He dares to take the first step to get acquaintance with the dogs by sitting near the dogs everyday. We should sometime learn from a cat too.