The playoff started with a thumping drive straight down the middle, the white nut coming to rest in perfect position about 20 meters from the green. No-one could have expected what happened next – a huge sandy monster jumping up and sucking in the approach shot, but still the team of Mark France, Ken Smith, Simon Mason and Chris Whiting fought that beach with bravery not seen since the Marines on D-Day to snatch the 2005 Ambassador’s Cup.
The Runner-up team of David Burks, David Coleman, Steve Pearson and Steve Stine shot a searing 8-under 64, but like Miss Universe Runner Up Renata Soñé from the Dominican Republic, they could take their second placed KC Dat sponsored crystal and walk away with their heads held high.
In scenes reminiscent of the great stampede of the 1998 Singapore Sale, golfers from all over Asia clamoured to sign up for this year’s Ambassador's Cup, such is its status on the Singapore amateur golf calendar. Organized by the American Association of Singapore and supported by sponsors more generous than most benevolent West African dictators, the Ambassador’s Cup 2005 was held in May at Palm Resort, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
The Texas Scramble (no that’s not code for Dubya’s brain) format continues to be a big hit for this tournament, with 250 golfers competing on two impossibly lush courses. Personally I found that the rely-on-your-teammates format to be most conducive to drinking copious amounts of beer, but the two best-score foursomes from each course managed to walk the fine line of sobriety to participate in an alternate shot playoff in front of literally thousands of spectators. If you can call dragonflies “spectators”, that is.
While on the course, golfers enjoyed the Sunday-brunch-like buffet of hot dogs and beer, and were treated afterwards to a stunning array of lucky draw prizes and auction items, kindly supplied by a huge array of sponsors. In the Grand Prize, Eastern & Orient Express offered punters a stateroom trip on their luxury train from Bangkok to Singapore, which was matched by the good people at Finnair who supplied a business class flight from Singapore to Bangkok to start the trip.
With Asia PGA supplier iGolf providing tournament golf shirts, first class chefs from Michelangelo’s preparing a sumptuous dinner, Carlsberg and Rubicon keeping the beer and wine flowing, United Airlines throwing in a couple of lucky draw flights, and Philips offering a flat screen TV and other electronics, the pain of only scoring 4-under was quickly dispatched by the fine array of sponsors.
“I’d like to especially thank the sponsors and all those who bid so generously in the auction to help the kids”, said Anne Le Boutillier, chairman of the organising committee, referring to the Mercy Relief’s Project Playpack charity, which aims to restore normalcy to children’s lives following the December 2004 tsunami disaster. For less than ten auction items, the live charity auction brought in over $10,000 in donations.
The Ambassador’s Cup has been a huge success for many years, thanks to the sponsors, the organizing committee who spend a great deal of time keeping the traditions alive, and the good nature of the golfers who participate and always make this a fun and light-hearted event. Make sure you book early for next May’s event – I’ve seen one too many Singapore stampedes lah.
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