Yesterday I was greeted by a large group of smiling Asian golfers on the first tee. I wasn’t quite sure of my chap as he simply said ‘driver’ after we had been introduced. Ok so he’s maybe not into small talk.
He immediately went and hit his drive which he hooked into the light left rough. At which point he exclaimed ‘oh no good!’ which I though was impressive restraint because he could have said much worse in an Asian tongue. Anyway he simply put another ball down and belted it up the middle.
We walked off the first tee and I said ‘which part of China are you from?’ at which point he nodded smilingly and said ‘no no I Taiwan they Tokyo!’ Ok I thought not that accurate but I got the right continent.
When we reached the green he picked up his ball and replaced it a foot nearer the hole like this was the normal thing to do. He proceeded to do this throughout the round. Further if he did get into the rough he would simply chuck it onto the nearest part of the fairway and give himself a good lie. The amusing thing though was that he was assidiously keeping his card. And he was a demon putter so he was rocking up quite a reasonable ‘score’.
His wife was playing in the group in front and he was never content to wait till they were out of striking distance. I tried to delay him but he would then wait a few seconds and just go up and hit. At this point I asked him if he didn’t like his wife and he laughed. I then added ‘do you never play with her?’ and he put on a kind of neutral expression which I didn’t quite get and I thought that maybe they didn’t do mixed golf in Taiwan.
We did have some repartee on the way round and I was amused by his interesting slant on the rules. It was trophied at the last when he and the Tokyo chap both hit great birdie chance shots into the green but leaving very testing ten foot putts. However on approaching the green my man shouts ‘gimmee birdies?’ to his friend which is readily agreed to. And they both laugh and with some self-satisfaction pick up their balls and walk off the green congratulating each other on a rather fine end to the round.