The hazards of working at a Manila golf course

When a driving range doesn’t have a cart to pick up the balls, someone has to do it.

Aussie Golfer recieved a great email from one of our readers we just had to share.

Peter Watson was in The Philippines recently and played at the Club Intramuros Golf Course in Manila. The course was built in 1907 and surrounds a 16th century fortress in Old Manila about 30min from the city centre. Night golf is available and each golfer plays with a caddy and an umbrella lady.
The course itself is short but sounds very interesting with plenty of water and several crossings over a very busy road. But it was the driving range which provided the highlight for Peter:

“The playing surface was clay and there was a lady perched on a low stool, whose job was to set the balls. If you grabbed the driver she would use two tees tied together. One tee was placed into the clay and her foot would hold down the second tee as an anchor. If you produced a 3 wood or iron, she would pick up a ball, place it on a mound of loose clay, squeeze some clay under the ball with her fingers extended around it, then place this on the ground ready for you to hit. You would have to wipe a lump of clay off the lower face of the club before the next shot. 

If this wasn’t entertainment enough, there were 3 guys on the range collecting balls. They were on foot and carrying what looked like man-sized hockey goals around for protection – no ball collecting machinery here! These guys would scurry along then stop, pick up some balls and repeat again. It was quite comical and reminded me of a Benny Hill skit.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *