The Golf Spirit at the Empire

What I am about to narrate here is something that if it happened to someone else, I would have dismissed it and probably said that that person's brain needs a bit of a check up. I have heard many stories at the Empire and the RBGCC in Jerudong and have smiled everytime I hear those stories. But this time you read and decide.

I am writing this immediately after I just got back from the Empire playing night golf. Ever since I started using a cane before the fasting month, I have not played golf that much. It was only last week that my cousin in law persuaded me to play a full 18 hole course at the RBA golf club. This afternoon, I was having lunch with my former retirement agency's investment manager and a Singaporean bank colleague when the subject of golf cropped up. They said why not play golf tonight - it has been ages since I last played at the Empire and I thought why not.

So we met at 6.30 pm at the Empire and after all 3 of us did the Maghrib prayer at the Club house, we started to tee off at hole #1. Timing wise, it was still Maghrib really but with all the floodlights we did not really notice. Well, fairly usual, golfers don't notice much other than the balls and the clubs. Tee off was okay, hole no #1 was fine. It was at the end of hole #1 before I got back into the buggy, I realised that my hybrid iron wood club #4 was not in my golf bag. I must have looked quite puzzled when my buggy partner asked me what's wrong. I told him I didn't have the #4 as I was pretty sure that no one has touched my bag at home and I don't think I left it as I did not use it. My partner offered to drive back so that we could search for it. It was a $500 Taylormade Rescue Club and even if it is now a well used club and has lost its value since, I still don't want to lose that club. But I decided against it and told him to drive on to Hole #2 and tried to persuade myself that I must have misplaced it at home or left it in my other golf bag.

At the tee off at hole #2 when I put in my driver back in the club, I checked all my clubs again and still the #4 was the only club missing and it was still until the end of hole #2. At hole #3, after the tee off, my ball was still some 200 metres away from the green and I normally would use my hybrid iron wood club #2 to get that distance. So I pulled out my #2 club and drive the ball to its usual distance with that club about 130+ metres in my case. When I wanted to put the #2 club back in the bag, I was very startled and taken aback. The #2 was already in the bag. I immediately looked at the club in my hand - it was the missing #4!

I looked at my partner and he looked at me and realised that something was really really amiss. He didn't say a word and I didn't want to say anything either. He understood what happened and it was a pretty sobering play soon after that. We tried to keep our spirits (I need to find a better word than that) by laughing fairly loudly at our golf antics. But suffice to say, the place suddenly looked eerie. It was worse when you have to go to the rough and stand all alone with the wood looming down on you.

I tried to reason it throughout the rest of the 6 holes but it was impossible not to have seen or mistaken the #2 or #4. You see - clubs are of different shapes and length. The hybrid iron wood #2 and #4 looked different than the drivers (huge and long clubs) or the irons (small and short clubs) - the #2 and #4 looked like small drivers but not as long as the drivers and at the same time #2 is about 3 inches longer than #4. In my case the #2's shaft is also different as it is made of titanium and the #4 even though the same brand is made of steel. You can tell that they are different and that there is no way to make a mistake with either one. Anyway - all I can come up is - someone 'borrowed' my club. Maybe to remind us that we should not be playing during Maghrib?

I believe in the supernatural world but normally still takes supernatural stories with huge pinches if not bottles of salt. But when my own golf clubs are being 'borrowed' and returned and changed while still being held in my hand has to take the cake. Maybe I ought to have my head examined. Maybe....