MUHIBBAH GAME@ DGCC

3rd - Samat Junai (66 OCB) - Croatoans

4th - Abu Bakar Suhai (66) - K30 and

5th - Ismawi Rambili (68) - Croatoans

No Damai Wave players were in the top 6 in the nett category. One wonders why. Hmm.... They, however pared better in the gross category, having two of their players in the top three.

The gross winners were no less impressive. Lokman Mustapha of K30 came out blazing and returned a score of 74, out-scoring the second and third placed winners from Damai Wave, Roslan Salleh and Shahminan Goslih by four strokes.

As usual there were tales of heroics and misadventures during the game. This tournament may have also uncovered a new star in the form of Lokman Mostapha (A self-confessed Melanau, he was tracing his roots in the Dalat area but he only succeeded in finding his future wife instead. He said if he cannot be a pure bred Melanau, at least he sleeps with a Melanau every night). Others like Zainuddin, Roslan Salleh, Shahminan had better take notice. We have a proverbial 'new kid on the block'.

Zainuddin, a very strong player who plays all his strokes with a half swing, did not have his A game, which was quite unusual because he is such a steady player. He was busy watching in awe Hj Ahoi carding birdie after birdie on the front nine. Ahoi, who carded 3 birdies in the first 4 hole on the mountain nine took all the winds out of Zainuddin's sail (is this a case of 'gone with the wind'?). The third member of the flight, Taib Gembar, a mean golfer in his own right, was left dumbfounded. You could hear Ahoi 'upping' every tee shots and the other two remained tight lipped (bebek)! Both refused to comment after the game. The last time we saw Ahoi, he was holding his sides laughing in his trademark high-pitch (Zainuddin and Taib said irritating) manner, some said he was on his way to the bank.

On the other end of the scale you have Dillah (nick named Ghandi) and Hj Musa ( he has many nicknames, most of which are unprintable). Poor Dillah could not seem to keep his ball out of the many water hazards around the course . He put his ball into the water from all positions: from the tees, on his second, on his third shot and on one occasion on his seventh shot! His unique, whirlwind swing did not help him this time. May be it is time for him to re-engineer. But to someone as stubborn as Dillah, fat chance. It is amazing how one can endure such punishment and stayed to finish the game! May be the organiser would consider giving prizes for perseverance. For the record, he finished last among the K30 members but in order not to add salt to injuries, the author considers it wise not to divulge his final score). Knowing Dillah, he will take his medicine and come out of this stronger. By the way, he did not stay for the prize giving ceremony, may be he was somewhere licking his wounds or was he afraid that he might have won the ignominious wooden spoon trophy. He would be happy to note that he could not even manage to win that prize. That dubious distinction went to Hj Engsah Han, an on-again-off-again golfer. (Psst ... he is the most popular golfer among K30 players- everybody wants to play with him. Some say he is a veritable ATM machine!).

A second member of Dillah's flight, Abang Khairol, remained diplomatic and stayed quiet through out most of the game (or was the eminent further reduction in fuel price on his mind all the time?). The third member, Saadi had a field day. He who revels at others' misfortunes just could not stop laughing... or was it crying? One could never tell as he had tears running down his face!! He came back with a creditable mid-table score. Some might not be happy to note that he did not shank any shots the entire game, Dillah did - on hole 9. Enough said.

Hj Musa, the chief organiser of the Muhibbah game, also found his outing a miserable one, so much so that he elected to use his driver entirely on hole 9 recording, according to him, a 13 for the hole. His marker, when asked to verify his claim, just shook his head and said he stopped counting after the eighth shot and just took his word for it. He finished a few rungs above Dillah among the K30 players.

Overall, everybody enjoyed themselves, promising to come back in three months time to have another go at the coveted trophy. The tournament had further cemented the already strong spirit of camaraderie among the Bumiputera golfers around Kuching. In addition, the tournament had helped unearthed very promising young golfers who could be developed further to pose credible challenges in local and national tournaments.

he President of PGABS was not present to grace the occasion as he was away on official duties. His presence would have added more glamour to the event. Instead, he conveyed his congratulations to the organisers for a job well done, to the sponsors a big thank you, and to PGABS members, his appreciations for making this tournament a success.