Golf greenkeepers and ball pickers

Hello again , I just forgot to say that on this course here the girls that looks after the driving range uses RAKES to collect and pick up the balls , No buggy here with a collection system , they can use hours doing this after a busy day , Although the days are usually not that busy , during the week it feels like my private golf course . It`s not often you also see the greenstaff driving to the green or similar in a motorcycle with a container of pesticide on their back. Others comes in pick up trucks . The maintenance though is very very good and most courses I have played can envy Asia golf their quality .

So there you go , I played 82 today in very strong winds .

Golf (at last )

Hi long time since ...... some even miss my Blogging , fancy that !! Even so here is the long (by some) awaited Golf Blog ..... As most of you know I live almost at a Golf course here in Peru . The golf course is South Americas LONGEST golf course from where we normally play its 7044 yards that` s around 6400 mtrs. Not only is it long it has lots of water hazards and flower beds , no trees though . The flower beds are the problem if you drift out of the fairway and go into especially the YELLOW flowers it`s a lost ball . I call them "ball cannibals"to locals amusement (see photo , yes I know they look harmless) . I have been playing since the last days of December quite a few times a week , every Friday we have a game called Matcheteros , It consist of a varied group of guys in Jan/Feb we where most of the time 10-12 persons, in March it has gone down to 2-3 as school has started and most seem to have a kid or 2 in school. With Macheteros we play almost all formats you can think of in one game , its : Pairs (internally in the foursome) teams against each other , single front , back , game and BY, MATCH PLAY , Water balls for food . In the end a guy puts all results into a Excel sheet and out comes the results which in most cases this year I have won some money . I`m by no means top of the money list , I probably should be as there have been 3 times my winnings has not been entered ,but still it`s been a steady flow of small amounts of $`s.

Lately (since feb) I have started playing with the course PRO , he´s a Peruian native and really a nice guy his name is Luis (see picture). Luis charge me 20 $ for an hours lesson , then he plays 18 holes with me which I`m also supposed to pay for as he "instructs" me during the game , we have an arrangment like If he wins I pay him 20$ if I win I don`t pay for his lesson ..... Fair enough as he don`t really have any money to speak of . So far I`m 5-1-2 (5 wins 1 draw 2 loss) .

We do not play stableford system here it`s all Gross medal play which is very good for my game. Since my "famous" rounds of 75-76-76 in early January I have come back to the more normal 80-86 shoots . I must have played around 30 games (incl the ones I will play this week , today I played 2x18 ) since I got here and in my mind I have only been under 30 stableford points a few times , but not that many over 36 either . It`s hard to tell since there is no slope and I would think since the lenght I would get 2 maybe 3 shots . There are lots of nice holes here in Asia Golf No 13 is an Island green from the men`s tee it`s 165 yards normally against the wind and if I have lost balls, it´s there and sometimes on 9 as that is 439 yards against wind and the green has water all along left side + right side is OB (and canibals ) ...

The easiest holes I think is 1 (538 y)and 18 (528y)both Par 5`s . 18 is the only one to reach in 2 even the hole is 528 yards. If I have a good tee shot close to the water side I can cross the water normally around 220 yards over water , I have been on the green in 2 a number of times and had eagle chances but never made one . Since I need to drive over from the house with my buggy I normally also use it on the course which I should not I should walk , they have caddies here and they are not expensive , there a lot`s of them most of them women but at the moment they do not know much about golf . They will get there though in the end.

Since Asia Golf is 100 km from Lima I believe that as from next week there will not be many people playing her , during the week there will be almost nobody . Except Richard of course an ex dental surgeon from Wales , he lives in Lima . 3 times a week he delivers his son to school at 7 am then drives an hour play golf and drives back again . (almost as dedicated as me)

There has been only a few tournaments in fact only 2 , the first was a strange one Bogie where you got 1 point for birdie Minus 1 point for bogie , needless to say this "antigolf" did not suit me . The last tournament was saturday (see pic) we played Scramble and our team came 4th we lost 2 place because worse than the others back 9, we where 6 under par with a 8 hcp (so -14) the winner had -16 ..

Golf is no good without nice weather and they really have nice weather in the summer here in Peru , the climate is a steady 28-30 degrees every day , on the course since its only a few 100 yards from the sea has a nice wind all the time so I never feel to warm .

Asia golf is built because they want to sell property , it would have been very easy for them to make a mediocre golf club and sell the 500 plots , but no this golf club is a REAL club. The greens are as good as it gets. Much better than courses in Spain , the rest of the course is also ALWAYS in very good nik. In fact I "dread" comming back to the "jumpy" St.Maria greens .

We have 2 clubhouses one by the course and one by the beach (ref: the Pink Floyd concert).The food is great , drinks are plentyful and it`s not at all expensive .

The people are very very friendly and nice so anybody have a chance to play here should do ......

Visit from the cold

Last week I had a visit from my friend Johan , he was just tired of the cold weather in Norway and came over for 10 days . Although it`s a looooong trip I believe he enjoyed his time here. We did quite a lot in the days . Nightclubs , golfcourse , massage , visit to a mountain village in Peru and where happily surprised as they had a village party (see photo) . There where also a Luau in our urbanisation with lots of the usual Salsa , but surprise surprise also some "normal" music. This time people did get drunk and argued , luckily we had left by then . We had invited some friends from "around" , the party was good and the Peruians do know how to throw a party I must admit . (the picture that looks from a hospital is Johan getting a shot of "adios motherf**cr as special drink from the famous MAIN bar .

This week is my birthday so we are in Lima for a few days there are a bunch of friends coming over to drink ....

Manana is back to the golf course for the 3 weeks I have left before I travel back to western hemisphere . So I would think the next blog could just maybe be about Golf ....untill then

Norway and media

I have as most of you know not been very "pro" Norway and especially the media , which I believe controls everything in Norway , what is the agenda , media sets it . I`m collecting a lot of stories off the internet and one day I might combine them all and show what`s going on . but today I got very provocated again . There is a report from the Engineering society that shows that Norwegian , Railroad , Roads , drainage , water etc etc is grossly neglected in fact to get it to a decent level investments of 160 000 000 000 (hope I get the 0`s right) nkr is needed . This does not come as a surprise at all to me and should not to anyone inside Norway . But what really is bad is that most of the newspapers have this story WAY DOWN on their web sites , more important is : Who`s the presenters in the upcoming Eurovision song contest , some petty argument between a Norwegian skier and a swede , some puppies that is illegal imported . In fact at Nrk`s (Norwegian broadcasting`s web site ) you have to go almost to the bottom to find this story .In fact from the biggest regional newspaper in Stavanger region this story is not even ON the web site .... So to all of you that believe Norway is such a perfect country , wake up........link:http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=579869

Horse with a name

Hi
Last saturday we went to a horse show , yes horse show , the Peru people have a horse they call Passo horse . This horse walks very funny like its tripping along kinda like a ballet dancer its very strange , the result is that the rider does not jump up an down as much as I have seen on "other horses" . The show was called SOY PERU , which means I AM PERU or something like that it was quite chauvenistisc (don`t know how to spell that ) but I assume you get it . The show was in about 15 parts and it was dancers etc dancing on a stage in the middle and the horses dancing around . The real buzz for me was Novalima as they provided most of the music and it`s one of my favorite bands. I include a picture here but since my camera is stolen it`s from my iPhone . Later we went to the BEACH club house of the golf course yes they have both an on course club house and one on the beach . They had contracted a Pink Floyd tribute band to play , unfortunately the Tsunami warning + the Horse show (which was full) had taken most of the people away so it was only about 40 people . They are called Big Pink and are quite good I have seen them here before . The setting though is quite nice , right by the beach and sitting there at 1 am in shorts sipping whisky listing to "Wish you where here" I bet you did.........

Been a while Pt. 2

Last week we went for a trip down to a place called Paracas and then on to Ica . Paracas is a "famous" holiday spot for the Peru people . This area which is next to a town called Pisco (Pisco is also the name of a drink here). This area was badly hit by the earthquake a few years ago . Now they have rebuilt most of the place and there is a new Hilton Hotel + the former Paracas and Hacienda hotels have been rebuilt . I went to look at the Hilton and it`s nice but nowhere as nice as the Paracas hotel this is a fantastic hotel and if the Hilton is 5* this is 9*. So if ever in the area stay there . We went for a boat trip to an Island full of birds, sealions and Penguins , I don`t think I have ever seen so many birds there must have been millions . This brings me back to the reason of the Asia Name as ref. my first post . According to a female caddy the Asia name comes from ketchua (the old peru language ) and refers to bad smell , it so happen that just outside the coast here there is a couple of Island`s where there was lots of birds , and birds shit .This shit or "Guana" as they call it is very smelly hence the name bad smell. This Guana is also a very good fertiliser and is picked up and exported , it was even used to produce explosives as it contains Nitrogen and fosfor . In Paracas they pick up this shit every 7 years and they say the island is covered in 60 cm of birdshit . Judging by the smell this must be a horrific job .
The next day we left for Ica , Santiago (ref 1st posting) has a wineyard there and he invited us for lunch (see picture) . This is a huge place some 700 acres of grapes etc . He produces 6 millions bottles of Wine/Pisco a year , as you can imagen the lunch had a lot of wine , but also good food, and Pisco . It`s about an hour thirty minutes to Ica from Paracas , in the evening we went for a drink to the Paracas hotel which was just 100 meters from the house we stayed in . The house was rented by some friend of us . We left early Friday as we had lunch party (Party party ). This party is THE party of the Lima high society . There are ex prime ministers , defence secretary etc etc and also this year I got to meet an ex UN GENERAL SECRETARY , his name was Perez and some more , he must have been close to 80 year old.
The next day Adriana where woken up by the friends from Paracas they had been alerted of a Tsunami because of the earthquake in Chile , and later in the day the water stood 30 cm up in the house as it is right on the beach . Up here in Asia we did not notice anything but luckily our house is also 30 meter up the hill.
Untill next time ,, Olav

Been a while Pt. 1

It`s been a while since last post , quite a few things have happen , we had a big party in the house on the 21 feb. There where around 80 people altogether . We have a friend (Miguel ) that is in a wheel chair and there is quite a lot of stairs up to the "party level" , taking him up went without problem , but going out when we where all "drunk" was a different case , in fact I was assigned to be on the left side towards the wall , but during the last section of the stairs I was pushed against the wall and lost my footing and ended up head down ass up squezzed between the wall and the chair , in fact he (Miguel) had to grab hold of me . Luckily he did not fall down and all went well in the end . We rented a company to make the food and serve there where 3 waiters and 2 bartenders , we had a bunch of food including 2 small BBQèd pigs . The next day my camera was gone we believe it must be one of the waiters . Therefore the picture above if from another person .