An Auspicious Start To Laguna’s Golfing Calendar

Living up to its reputation as one of the highlights on Laguna National Golf & Country Club’s annual golfing calendar, the Hong Bao Golf Competition provided Members and guests with a memorable day of fun and games on and off the course. Adding to the atmosphere were the Club’s very own ‘God of Fortune’ distributing gold coins alongside ‘Big Head Doll’.

Off to a flying start in the Year of the Rat, Jonathan Woodward amassed a haul of 40 Stableford points over the Masters Course to top the leaderboard using the System 36 format. While Sylvia van den Brink emerged as the leading lady with 38 points.

Not content with his individual triumph, Woodward and his son, Callum, along with flightmates Gary Brookes and Chris Emslie, won the Gong Xi Fa Cai Putting Challenge. For good measure, Brookes powered a 296-yard tee shot to win the Men’s Prosperity Long Drive.

Other novelty prize winners were Tan Shi Geng and Law Khim Huat (Nearest the God of Fortune); Tan Boey Hoon (Nearest the Lucky 8); Evon Ng (Ladies Infinity Long Drive) and Oliver Imaizumi (Nearest the Longevity Line).

The prize for the Best Group photo went to the quartet of Tay Ngee Joo, Tay Kam Kiang, Poh Yee Tiong and Yeo Teck Seng.

One of the most remarkable performances of the day came from Terence Tan, who last year came closest to guessing correctly the number of grains of rice in a rice bucket. He repeated his feat again this year when it came to guessing the weight of two Chinese New Year-decorated pineapples. His guess of 2,238 grams was just 14 grams off the correct figure, earning him the pool money of S$148.

“Thanks to our Members for supporting this event so well,” said Mark Bates, Laguna National’s Director of Golf Operations. “Once again we were considerably over-subscribed. All the feedback we have received has been extremely positive.”