THE KGNS BLOG: We are sailing (teeing) off at 7.30 am

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We are sailing (teeing) off at 7.30 am

We are short of three balls for tomorrow.
Any interested party who would like to make the foursome?
We are not going far, either the Atlantic or Pacific.
Maybe we can sail the Straits of Malacca, if its not too busy.

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The Roots

To many who know the Subang National Golf Club or KGNS well, it will come as a surprise to learn that it had several different names in its early days. It began originally as the Seaport Estate, a rubber plantation that dates back into the distant past of that industry. Subsequently, when the momentous decision to build a new golf course for Kuala Lumpur at that site was taken sometime in 1963. It was variously known as the Sungei Way Golf Course and the Kelab Golf Kebangsaan Subang eventually.

It is not known how the latter name, first used by its founder, former Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, at the official opening of the course on 1 September 1968, came to be transformed into Kelab Golf Negara Subang (KGNS). But its Seaport origins have never really been obliterated by the passage of time and the tremendous progress of the Club itself over the past fifteen years. Some of the old rubber trees are still to be seen in various parts of the course standing as a silent reminder of the plantation days gone by.

For some years too until the new Clubhouse building was formally opened in 1971, members were accommodated in what was known as the old Clubhouse - the former Seaport Estate manager's wooden bungalow situated between the third and fifteenth greens. It was quaintly described at one time as "a ramshackle wood and plaster building with three showers in an outhouse" and the membership which exceeded 500 then naturally complained of the lack of privacy!

More than its historical links with Seaport Estate and the Sungei Way area, KGNS owes its origins almost entirely to one man - Tunku Abdul Rahman. It was the Tunku who conceived of the idea when he quietly got the Ministry of the Interior in 1963 to look into the feasibility of building a new golf course for Kuala Lumpur, at the rubber estate on the Batu Tiga Road near Sungei Way. At that time the main Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur, the Royal Selangor, already had a membership of 1,500 of whom not less than 1,300 were believed to be active golfers.

By March 1964 the Tunku had convened a high-powered Committee with himself as Chairman and the then Minister of the Interior, the late Tun Dr. Ismail bin Abdul Rahman, as Vice-Chairman. Its Honorary Secretary was a Mr. E.D. Cooper and the other members were drawn from the Treasury, the Public Works Department, Town and Country Planning Department, the Federal Capital Commission and "noted golfers".

The Committee, comprising 20 persons in all, decided, firstly, to apply for a loan from the Federal Government to build a 27-hole course of which 18 would be for members and 9 for the public. Secondly, the Committee selected a noted Japanese golf course architect, S.I. Inouye, to design the course and by June of that year, Mr. Inouye had visited Kuala Lumpur and inspected the site at Seaport Estate. As early as June 1964 the Committee had set for itself the goal of making the proposed course "one of the best in South East Asia" and it was anticipated that the new Club would receive spontaneous support from golf enthusiasts.

Finally, in late March 1965, the Tunku formally announced that the new golf course would be built at Seaport Estate as the RSGC was already "overflowing". The site covered 250 acres and the course was expected to be ready by the middle of 1966. It was tentatively known as the Sungei Way Golf Club. In June 1966, it was revealed that there would be altogether four nines, 2 for members and 1 for the public at the Seaport Estate site and a fourth nine to be known as the Sungei Way Fourth Nine to be built in Pulau Langkawi. The concept of the Club at that time was to link Langkawi, an island off the Kedah coast, and Sungei Way in Selangor.

More Roots

For more than three years, between 1965 and 1968, the proposed Golf Club became a hot political issue with constant attacks on the Government for embarking upon the project. Not only was the Opposition in Parliament particularly vocal on the subject as might be expected, but even Government supporters questioned the wisdom of spending public funds on the construction of a golf course. The cost of the project came under severe criticism although no one, not even the official side, was able to give a clear answer as to what the cost was. The Tunku himself had decided as a matter of principle that the Government would only loan the money needed with the specific proviso that it would eventually be paid back by the management of the course.

No doubt partly due to the need to assuage the ruffled feelings of politicians and the public, it was announced in early 1968 that a Subang Golf Course Corporation Bill would be laid before Parliament so that the whole enterprise would be above board. It was also revealed that of the total area to be acquired some 35 acres would be turned into a housing scheme while another 10 acres would be set aside for a modern country-club type of hotel for visitors using the recently completed Subang International Airport. The returns from these two projects would go towards repayment of the Government loan.

On a bright and sunny morning in September 1968 the Subang National Golf Club's 18-hole course was declared open by His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong before a gathering of foreign and local dignitaries. The Tunku took the opportunity in his welcoming address to clear the air about the long-term plans of the Club and reiterated that when the entire development had been completed it would not have cost the Government even a cent.

On a lighter note, when it came to his turn to tee off the Tunku hit a 'trick' ball that exploded in a cloud of red smoke while the King's golf ball was the object of a scramble among the caddies. The lucky one who retrived it was Encik Osman bin Omar, 18 years old, a Class One caddy from the RSGC, who received a small reward from His Majesty for getting the ball which was to be mounted later as a souvenir to commemorate the occasion. The King had earlier declared the course open by unveiling a plaque in the form of a huge golf ball which is now prominently displayed at the entrance of the present Clubhouse. At the opening ceremony the Tunku committed himself to turning the new course into a first class course.

It is important to note that despite the numerous distractions caused by the political controversy surrounding it and the plans to embark upon a housing scheme and a modern hotel under the Corporation that had come into law, there was a consistent interest in the purely golfing aspects that the Tunku and his Committee faithfully adhered to. In this regard, it must be remembered that, after Mr. Inouye had drawn up his plans and left, it fell to the Government Departments concerned, particularly the Public Works Department, and various individuals to ensure that the course was built to the highest standards of the game. The name Tom Verity, thus, looms large in this context for it was he who had a personal hand in working closely with the PWD engineers, Mr. Chew Choon Lee and Mr. Bobby Tan, in shaping the greens and fairways out of a former rubber estate denuded of most of its trees.

Tom verity had spent a considerable length of time in the country and had lately been the professional at the Island Country Club in Singapore. He had then joined the RSGC in a similar capacity and moved over to the embryonic KGNS in 1966. It is almost certain that Inouye's original sketches were radically modified by Tom Verity's personal involvement as the construction of the course went along. The result in 1968 was a par-72 championship course of 6,835 yards with four par-3 holes, ten par-4 holes and four par-5 holes. One of its most interesting features, as a newpaper noted at that time, was the colossal size of its bunkers of which there were no less than 64, the biggest guarding the fifth green being a full 65 yards.

Verity also considered the 220 yd 6th hole as the most challenging with a stream, two ponds, and three bunkers. The specially designed three-tiered driving range is the only one of its kind in Malaysia. It might be said in all truth, therefore, that it was Tom Verity and the stalwarts from the Public Works Department who gave full expression to the Tunku's dream of a golf course that would possess singularly challenging characteristics befitting its status as the National Club.

Some more roots

The membership of such a prestigious club would naturally have to be rather limited and it was no doubt for this reason that the Tunku had wisely decided on a separate nine for the public. At the opening of the course in September, 1968 he stated that the members would be limited to only 400 initially and also spoke of plans to have a modern clubhouse with such facilities as a swimming pool, tennis courts and a children's playground. By the time the course was opened for play to its members in early October 1968, the Club had already received more than 400 applications and it was decided to hold the maximum at 600 members. But the response to the new Club was overwhelming and even the Tunku and Tun Dr. Ismail must have been more than a little surprised to find that by December 1968, 600 members had been registered, with the figure standing at 700 in 1969, and 1,020 in April 1970, with a long waiting list of potential members.

Such a rapid increase in membership naturally gave no end of headaches to the management of the Club which was initially directly under the Subang Golf Course Corporation constituted by law, and comprising eleven members with Tun Dr. Ismail as Chairman and the then Menteri Besar of Selangor, Dato Haji Harun Idris, as Vice-Chairman, in 1968. One of the grouses of some members was that they were discriminated against because of the special privileges granted to government servants to pay by instalments the entrance fee of $500/-!

One complaint from members was directed at the prevalence of large numbers of crows which had the irritating habit of swooping down and carrying off golf balls in the midst of play! The main source of dissatisfaction, however, was the slow progress that was being made in the construction of the new clubhouse which one member, in a letter to the Press, in 1969 described as " a barren skeleton in an apparently abandoned site". Having been partially held up in the aftermath of the 13 May disturbances, the construction work was restarted later that year by Tun Dr. Ismail personally and the striking Minangkabau-roofed building was formally declared open by the King in September, 1971.

Yet by 1971 the weekend golfers had swelled to over 200 and the changing facilities in the new clubhouse were considered to be inadequate. By the end of 1971 there is no doubt at all that KGNS was well on its way to becoming the premier golf club in Malaysia. As one commentator waxed forth, "golf in Subang is sport, drama, picnic, all rolled into one". For one thing, the number of younger golfers outstripped the old and on any day the Clubhouse was a hive of activity with the car park jammed with "cars of all makes from the smallest of the minis to the largest of American limousines".

With such impressive credentials KGNS was obviously well qualified to aspire to the ultimate ambition of any respectable golf club - that is, to host major tournaments. It is certainly enlightening to find out, once again, the pioneering role that the Tunku played in this respect as well, for at the annual general meeting of the Malaysian Golf Association in April 1969, he boldly bid for the 1970 Malaysian Open to be held at Subang. Unfortunately, the MGA which had only that year admitted KGNS as an affiliate was not as optimistic, for in turning down the Tunku's offer it noted that "the Subang course was not yet ready" for such a championship.

Nevertheless, the Club hosted a number of friendly tournaments throughout 1969 and 1970 that attracted large numbers of entries. In 1971, KGNS switched over to the USGA handicapping system and by the time the first Selangor Open was held in April 1972, most of the leading Malaysian golfers who participated were unanimous in their view that the course was challenging and punishing and that the "huge" greens were a tough challenge. Such was the background against which the Club went ahead in the mid-70s to build the Tun's and Sultan's nines in addition to the original Agong's and Tunku's nines. The full 36-hole course dates from early 1978 when the last of the 9 holes was opened for play. In 1981 KGNS became the only Club in Malaysia to instal an automatic sprinkler system for the entire course.

With Tunku Abdul Rahman's departure to Jeddah as Secretary-General of the Islamic Secretariat in April 1971, Tun Dr. Ismail, who was now Deputy Prime Minister, assumed the mantle of President of the Club. Hardly had the new President embarked upon a number of projects as well as the early completion of the much-awaited swimming pool before he passed away unexpectedly in 1973. His successor was the new Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Hussein Onn, who was assisted by his Vice-President, Tan Sri Syed Zahiruddin, the Chief Secretary.

Since the days of Tun Dr. Ismail the Club has had an unbroken tradition of having as its President the Deputy Prime Minister of the country although the hectic business of administering its affairs has had to break with some rather charming traditions. In the old days it was often the case that Committee meetings were held at the Residency, Tunku Abdul Rahman's official residence as Prime Minister. It was at the Residency too that most of the meetings at the planning stages were held in the early 1960s.

While a large number of people has contributed to the development of the Club, no one would in the least demur if it be recorded that without the spark of an idea and the boldness of a dream that excited Tunku Abdul Rahman's imagination and far-sightedness way back in 1963 this Club would never become a reality.

THE KGNS BLOG

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We are sailing (teeing) off at 7.30 am

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