I had to play in a golf tournament a couple days after our trip was over, so we thought it would be a great idea to get some practice in while on vacation. The sun was still playing hide and seek come Thursday so after breakfast (oh yeah, I have to still talk about the food) we decided to head off to the Rarotonga Golf Course. Now, you're probably wondering what kind of course could this been?? A full course, executive course?? Neither. It was more like a pitch and put style, but had some good length holes. Of course I can't relate the distances to any courses I've played back home because they don't measure in yards there...they follow the metric system and boy does that screw one up!! We were able to rent a full set of clubs, a pull cart, balls and tees and shared it between the two of us. I'm not sure if that's standard protocol there or if it was because the course wasn't too busy. It cost us $35 each and we played 9 holes (I'll explain a little later). Their website advertises prices of $20 green fee for either 9 or 18 holes and another $20 to hire clubs plus another $20 for carts. So I think we got a deal.
Even for a tropical island golf course they have a dress code. No jandals (I think they mean sandals) or flip-flops, no boob tubes or singlets (I don't know what either really is), tank tops or bikinis. So appropriately dressed in dry-fit t-shirts, capris for me and shorts for Ziad, socks and running shoes we set off to play a round of golf. Now the course itself has a very scenic background of the lush inland hills of the island. The grass on the course itself was very long which made it challenging to play on the fairways. There are a few obstacles along the way. There are a lot of cables holding up these airwave/radio transmitter towers; at least that's what we think they were and they are situated right in the line of your shots down the fairways. Hit one of those and your ball goes in a completely different direction than you intended. I'm sure they had a rule for if that happened, but I didn't read it nor did we play by it. This was the first time out for both of us this year and Ziad's first time after taking his lessons. I ended up having a very frustrating time because on hole 4 I got stuck in a very steep sand trap and just couldn't get that damn ball out. I had doubled par and was still stuck in there and finally gave up on that hole. Not a good way to play, but I was becoming really frustrated and well everyone knows what I can be like when I'm frustrated. So needless to say I didn't play very well after that. Ziad on the other hand had some really good shots, though on the last hole he had to play off the wrong fairway. In all fairness to him, so did I....both had bad first shots.
So as I mentioned at the beginning the sun was still playing hide and seek. Well, it was a little more than that...on the 5th hole, I started to feel rain drops and then by the time we got to the 6th hole, the sky just opened up and it just started to pour....and pour....and well you get the idea. It probably lasted about 5-10 minutes and then stopped and we were able to resume our game. After this downpour it became extremely humid and it was actually quite uncomfortable and so after playing 9 holes we decided that was enough and scootered off for lunch.
Even for a tropical island golf course they have a dress code. No jandals (I think they mean sandals) or flip-flops, no boob tubes or singlets (I don't know what either really is), tank tops or bikinis. So appropriately dressed in dry-fit t-shirts, capris for me and shorts for Ziad, socks and running shoes we set off to play a round of golf. Now the course itself has a very scenic background of the lush inland hills of the island. The grass on the course itself was very long which made it challenging to play on the fairways. There are a few obstacles along the way. There are a lot of cables holding up these airwave/radio transmitter towers; at least that's what we think they were and they are situated right in the line of your shots down the fairways. Hit one of those and your ball goes in a completely different direction than you intended. I'm sure they had a rule for if that happened, but I didn't read it nor did we play by it. This was the first time out for both of us this year and Ziad's first time after taking his lessons. I ended up having a very frustrating time because on hole 4 I got stuck in a very steep sand trap and just couldn't get that damn ball out. I had doubled par and was still stuck in there and finally gave up on that hole. Not a good way to play, but I was becoming really frustrated and well everyone knows what I can be like when I'm frustrated. So needless to say I didn't play very well after that. Ziad on the other hand had some really good shots, though on the last hole he had to play off the wrong fairway. In all fairness to him, so did I....both had bad first shots.
So as I mentioned at the beginning the sun was still playing hide and seek. Well, it was a little more than that...on the 5th hole, I started to feel rain drops and then by the time we got to the 6th hole, the sky just opened up and it just started to pour....and pour....and well you get the idea. It probably lasted about 5-10 minutes and then stopped and we were able to resume our game. After this downpour it became extremely humid and it was actually quite uncomfortable and so after playing 9 holes we decided that was enough and scootered off for lunch.
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