On the fast lane into oblivion?

By Avie K. Utomo

JAKARTA (JP): It's 6:47 a.m. on Saturday. A speeding S-Type blue Jaguar passes on Jagorawi toll road.

The person behind the wheel is driving fast to join his already waiting golfing buddies.

They are supposed to start playing at exactly 7:09, but if they miss it, they have to wait 45 minutes, provided another group had not shown up.

The thought of waiting for not being there on time, he floors the gas pedal to 165 kmh.

He makes it on time. It is then the beginning of a long and tiring day.

Five hours later and after walking some 6,600 yards, the man has lost a dozen balls.

Half of them were shot into the waters, while the rest fell in the shrubs and paddy fields.

Not surprisingly, his latest gizmos, which are also used by Tiger Woods, have not helped him at all. What is worse, he has lost Rp 750,000 in friendly wagering, and at the end of the day, he had spend hundreds of thousands of rupiah on food and beverage.

Golf in Indonesia almost resembles the journey of that gentleman in the blue Jag. Riding on the fast lane into oblivion.

The number game

From the early 1980s until when the economic crises hit the country in 1997, under the pretext of promoting tourism, more than 60 golf courses had been built.

Most were built to world-class standards.

Golf legends turned designers such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Nick Faldo had put Indonesia on the global golf map.

Millions of greenbackers were filling their already lucrative bank accounts, and what have we got back?

Perhaps nothing.

The latest rumor has it that some 65 golf courses are currently under the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA.)

A former director general of tourism said that golf in Indonesia did not contribute at all to the tourist industry.

Most local tour operators treat golfers cum tourists like cattle. A typical itinerary starts with an airport pickup, then hotel and golf course transfers and finally back to the airport, with meals given in between.

Unfortunately, because of shortsightedness on the part of the golfers, operators that give bigger discounts are more favored.

Tour operators rarely go all the way to find out what an individual golfer really needs. Operators can actually tap bigger revenues by creating specific programs to meet their client's demand.

Nevertheless, golf clubs have flaws too.

Run and owned by those relatively new to golf, cutting corners seem to be the order of the day. Proper care of the courses is kept to minimum. Undoubtedly, within a few years to come, some of these golf courses will have to undergo major repairs owing to its present lack of maintenance.

Survival

Poor maintenance of clubs cannot be attributed to the small number of players using the golf courses.

The number of rounds in a month could soar to as high as 5,000, meaning 5000 players. And if each player spends at least Rp 200,000 per visit, then the club's monthly turnover will be in the vicinity of Rp 1 billion.

So, why are the clubs complaining?

Only when the course cannot generate the number of rounds to break even that the trouble begins.

Unlike public golf courses in Bali and Batam, which are popular destinations for foreigners, courses elsewhere must depend on local players to make up the numbers.

In order to increase their patrons, some clubs have come up with innovative programs such as employing telemarketers to call the customers and persuade them to return.

Other schemes to draw in players include hole-in-one cash jackpots and special discounts for seniors, ladies and juniors.

Tiger and the cubs

Golfing prodigy, Eldrick Tiger Woods, since he turned professional in 1996, has amassed a world record prize money of US$24,887,040, compared to Tom Kite who began his career in 1972 and for some years held the purse record of about $10,000,0000.

This year alone, Tiger has managed to collect some $4.9 million, not to mention his appearance fees plus the hundreds of millions in endorsement contracts.

Tiger's win of $1,008.000 in this year's Masters is in no way comparable to the total prize money of $88,000 for the six tournaments in the Indonesian Pro Tour 2001.

During the 2000 season, the best Indonesian professional golfer, Maan Nasim, was only able to scrape together some Rp 100 million out of the six tournaments he entered.

Lagging behind

Indonesian players are also lagging behind the Asean greats like Frankie Minoza of the Philippines who makes his living on the Japan Tour, or Thailand's Tongchai Jaidee who was able to qualify for the US Open 2001.

On the amateur's side, it is also sad to note that our athletes are far behind their Asean counterparts. During the last Asean Amateur Putra Cup tournament, our boys could not even match up with the Bruneians.

Despite the fact that we have top-class golf courses, nagging questions remain unanswered.

Where do we start? What have we done? Where are we heading to? Both national organizations, the amateur's Indonesia Golf Association and Indonesia Professional Golf Association had been trying various ways to boost players' performance.

So far, they have led to dead ends.

The "Tiger effect", as it is known, has encouraged millions of children and adults to take up golf.

Thanks to the worldwide coverage on television and other media, Tiger's presence is strongly felt by junior golfers.

Although, there are no tested programs like the First Tee in the United States, a number of clubs here have recently started to conduct similar projects.

Children as young as seven to 12 years old are introduced to the game and motivated to have Tiger's determination and his father Earl Woods' persistence.

Above all, the local golf community is attempting to reinvent the wheel.

However, there has not been any conceptual nor systematic approach to the matter.

Everyone is talking about their dreams of making a Tiger.

But nobody has comes up with real solutions, like the need for developing the infrastructure such as sectional, regional and national competitions.

Everyone is waiting for sponsors to come. And at a time like this, the mice are waiting for a daring member to tie the bell around the cat's neck.

No looking back

Lately, a number of driving ranges have sprung up in big cities to meet the demands for golf training.

But, like it or not, there is less than a handful of qualified golf teachers out of some 300 Indonesian professionals. And perhaps none is well-equipped or even trained for the job.

Unlike the PGA of America where one has to undergo a long, strict and arduous process to become a Class-A professional, in Indonesia one can effortlessly join the professional golf association.

All that is needed is simply the willingness to lose one's amateur status and a few bucks.

To take the dreaded Playing Ability Test in the U.S., one has to work for two years as an apprentice under a Class-A professional.

Of course, after passing the test, one will be sought after by the big players.

Golf pro Butch Harmon, for instance, has helped correct Tiger's swings.

In contrast, no local playing professional is known to have taken advice from a teaching pro.

It is difficult to find a competent player in Indonesia as local players are still struggling to put food on the table.

Due to the recent economic downturn, many world famous golf schools had pulled out from Indonesia.

Example Gary Player and John Jacobs Academies, which had expatriate instructors at its training centers, have closed as people cannot afford to pay in foreign currencies anymore.

And what a great loss it is for elevating golfing skills.

To fill the vacuum, a golf school run by nonprofessionals, and with questionable credibility and quality, has emerged.

But, as they say, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed jack becomes the king.

In retrospect, hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in Indonesia's golf courses and unless something is quickly done, golf in Indonesia will ride on the fast lane into oblivion.

The writer is a golf observer.