Why Indonesian golfers still get left behind<\/p>\n
By Sri Wahyuni<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Golf does not necessarily exclude the less-than
\nwealthy. Regardless that the market price of transferable
\npermanent membership at certain golf courses is very expensive --
\nsome cost up to US$150,000 -- there is also a growing number of
\ntalented and qualified golf players in Indonesia, both
\nprofessional and amateur, being of families that are not rich.<\/p>\n
A lack of sponsorship is often a problem for these poor golf
\nplayers in moving on. Yet, there has always been a way to handle
\nit. Indonesian Golf Association (PGI) secretary-general Sjachrul
\nTaufik Aziz, 63, shares his experience with The Jakarta Post in
\ndealing with such a problem.<\/p>\n
Question: How do you see the development of golf in Indonesia
\ncompared to in other countries in the region?<\/p>\n
Answer: The development of this sport is inseparable from
\npeople's prosperity, especially when we talk about professional
\ngolfers. That's why our professional golfers are far behind.<\/p>\n
Indonesian amateur golfers, on the contrary, are much better.
\nI can say that they are comparable to those in the Philippines,
\nThailand, Singapore and Myanmar, although they are not yet
\ncomparable to those in Taiwan, Japan and Korea.<\/p>\n
There are of course indications of growing development. As you
\nsee, only eight to nine years ago, golf was not recognized as a
\nplace for promising professions both as a sport and as a field of
\n(golf course) business management. This changed in the early
\n1990s following the growing development of golf courses all
\nacross the country.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, it's saddening -- though understandable -- that
\nfor the last five to six years of its growing development, almost
\nall of the top management levels in almost all club houses in
\nIndonesia are still under expatriates.<\/p>\n
Q: Are you saying that we don't have many local golf course top
\nmanagers yet?<\/p>\n
A: That's right. The percentage of local top managers is less
\nthan 5 percent. The good news is golf is now seen as a place of
\npromising professions. Top managers of a club house in Jakarta,
\nfor example, can earn a monthly take-home salary of between
\nUS$5,000 and $6,000. It's interesting, isn't it?<\/p>\n
I've noticed at least two Indonesian amateur golfers who
\ngraduated from U.S. golf academies. One in San Diego, the other
\nfrom the California Golf Academy. Both are surely promising golf
\ncourse top managers to be. There are certainly many more to come,
\nincluding those who are not golf players.<\/p>\n
Q: How long will it take for the locals to take over all the
\nexpatriates' positions as top managers in Indonesian golf
\ncourses?<\/p>\n
A: I cannot say. It will take time but I'm quite sure that the
\ntime will come. We have the potential to do so. It's only a
\nmatter of time because it was only a few years ago that we
\nrealized we could make a living by it.<\/p>\n
Even as a golfer, if you are good enough, you can make a
\nliving from it. If an Indonesian professional golfer of top level
\nwins, let's say, two tournaments in a year, he would earn Rp 50
\nmillion to Rp 100 million a year. It's a big enough sum for an
\naverage Indonesian, isn't it?<\/p>\n
If you are at a lower level, on the other hand, your earnings
\nwill only be about Rp 5 million to Rp 6 million a year. It is
\nnothing compared to the expenses you have to pay to take part in
\nthe tournaments. Can you imagine those who never win a
\ntournament?<\/p>\n
Q: Is that a problem?<\/p>\n
A: Of course. It makes it even more difficult to attract educated
\nyoung beginners to play golf. Not only they will earn nothing,
\nthey will spend more money as well.<\/p>\n
Q: How does PGI usually overcome such a problem?<\/p>\n
A: As matter of fact, there are always rich people who donate to
\npoor golfers, without expecting any reward. Thanks to these
\npeople, there is also a growing phenomenon of Indonesian
\nprofessional golf players from the grass roots. They usually come
\nfrom families which have a member -- mostly the father -- working
\nat a golf course or in golf course surroundings.<\/p>\n
Q: Will this phenomenon help to eliminate the image that golf is
\nonly for rich people?<\/p>\n
A: We cannot deny that such an image is indeed there.
\nNevertheless, we cannot deny either that most of our (Indonesian)
\ntop-ranked amateur golfers are not from rich families.<\/p>\n
Q: If that is the case, what is the most difficult obstacle the
\nPGI is facing in producing top national players at the present
\ntime?<\/p>\n
A: I myself never see it (obstacle) as a difficulty. A good
\nplayer will only grow well if the sport itself is growing well in
\nthe country. It's, therefore, not just the training that counts.
\nHow can we produce good players if the sport itself doesn't grow
\nwell here?<\/p>\n
Q: How do you see it here given the fact that the number of golf
\ncourses is amazingly increasing?<\/p>\n
A: Regardless of how expensive memberships or green fees are, the
\nincreasing number of golf courses will eventually make it
\npossible for more newcomers to come. It will in turn give us more
\nopportunities to observe and select talented players, through the
\ntournaments we conduct, to be further trained in the national
\ntraining center.<\/p>\n
We, for example, have found recently a talented female player
\nfrom Manado, North Sulawesi. Although she is old enough as a
\nbeginner, she is 18 years of age, she is worthy regarding the
\nfact that we have only a very limited number of female players.
\nShe is now one of the two Indonesian female players trained
\nabroad in preparation for the upcoming SEA Games.<\/p>\n
Q: Golf courses have always been related to destruction. How do
\nyou accept this?<\/p>\n
A: Let me put it this way. A real estate site usually is built on
\nan area of 500 hectares to 600 ha or even 1,000 ha. An 18-hole
\ngolf course will only occupy about 50 ha to 60 ha of that. How
\ncan a golf course which occupies only one-tenth of the whole
\nsite, or even less than that, be considered a cause of the
\nproblem?<\/p>\n
This is understandable, however, because golf courses are
\nusually built ahead of the other facilities including the housing
\ndevelopment. That's why it's almost always the golf course which
\nis the first target when a real estate development has trouble
\nwith land disputes.<\/p>",
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