When playing the La Meridian Nirwana Golf Resort in Bali, I was teamed up with a married couple from Osaka in Japan. Now the Nirwana resort has a signature hole which is a par 3 which you have to tee off over the ocean to the green about 160 meters away. It is a beautiful hole with the Tanah Lot temple in view to the left of the green. Now this is the sort of thing that, as a golfer, you dream about playing. In fact it was one of the reasons I wanted to play the course. So I tee up my ball (a little nervous I might add), & drill a 4 wood straight over the green & into the rough just through the back. I was stoked with the shot & wanted to hit another one, but not knowing the people I was playing with thought better of it. Now here is the bit I don’t get. Both of my Japanese playing partners didn’t even attempt to hit the ball from the tee. They both took drops on the fringe of the green. I mean they fly 6 hours to Bali to play golf & then don’t play the most amazing hole on the course. This got me to thinking, maybe they were playing with tour quality balls worth $20 each or something & didn’t want to lose them. When we got to the green I had a look at the balls they were playing with. They looked to me like driving range balls!!! They even had the stripe around middle!!!
After we got back home & looked at the video we took that day, I saw for the first time the expression on the face of the Japanese bloke I was playing with. The look of horror while the ball was over the water then the look of joy when it landed near then green was quite incredible. If he got that much enjoyment from my shot, imagine how he would have felt if he had have hit his own.