Being a part-time consultant leaves plenty of time for me to also be a part-time ‘person of leisure.’ My friend, Jason, (husband to PAC doctor, Fiona) is also a ‘person of leisure’ when not working as a green consultant (as in the conservation type) or raising his 8 month old son, Alex. As true ‘persons of leisure’ Jason and I recently made a pact to play every golf course in Swaziland. And as the daughter of George Dillon, this proposition obviously appealed to me. So, last Friday, we took the first steps toward our goal by playing the Mbabane Municipal 9-hole course. Without knowing what to expect, we headed over to the clubhouse about 10:00am. After negotiating with the pro to borrow his clubs, since we didn’t have any of our own, and after navigating a group of eager caddies, we paid the 50 Emalangeni (about $7) and teed-off. Let it be known that the winner of the caddy bidding war went to Patrick, for the sole reason that he had a Washington Redskins sweatshirt on and well, I am the wife of Douglas Blank (surrogate owner of a Redskins yamakah). Jason and I decided to play ‘best ball’ given that I had played most recently and that was 7 months ago (and the time before that was last Christmas). We also decided to play from the ‘ladies’ tees, which all of the caddies who were standing by in hopes that we’d change our mind about Patrick, found very entertaining. It was a supremely enjoyable day and WE shot a 45 (and only lost one ball – mostly due to Patrick’s mad retrieval skills). We played consistent bogey golf, less one double-bogey and one par. Randomly, it was our putting that saved us – we were sinking them from 10, 12, and 15 feet (no kidding).
Patrick
The first hole and still smiling
I almost forget the best rule, ever! Local rules (that are clearly posted in the clubhouse) state that you can pick-up your ball and place it within 30 cm of its original placement on EVERY shot. This might have contributed greatly to our bogey golf...Regardless, here's a shot of Patrick re-placing the ball as Jason looks on in disbelief at this rule and our good fortune!
The greenskeepers take a lot of pride in their work and even if some of their tools are rudimentary, they take exceptional care of the course.
Views from the course (this is a bit of a 'recruiting' tool to get my Dad over here)
And finally, the 19th hole. Look at how many sleeves of balls Jason brought with him. Clearly, he had a lot of confidence in our game!
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