TEAMWORK & PLAYERS’ COMMITMENT SEE CLUB RISE TO THE TOP
BY GODFREY ROBERT
Tucked in the far corner in North-eastern Singapore is the vibrant Seletar Country Club where golf, bowling, sailing, music and food are selling points that make this venue a popular destination. Best of all, the club members are fun-loving and enjoy a camaraderie that can be an example to many Singapore sports clubs.
Golf, no doubt, is its primary palatable dish, what with a beautiful 18-hole layout that tests your skill and nerves with water playing a central theme in its natural landscape beside Seletar Reservoir.
This year, Seletar has an extra reason to celebrate because the club claimed the Singapore Golf Association’s (SGA) Inter-Club League after a series of matches over a fi ve-month period.
And as its enthusiastic captain, Andy Pang, says: “Our motto was: ‘we go out as one and come back as one. Should we lose, let’s be gracious about it. Should we win, let’s do so gentlemanly. That’s the Seletar Spirit’.” Seletar beat National Service Resort and Country Club 9-6 in the final at Laguna National after a long-drawn tournament which took on a new format this year.
It was introduced to shorten the duration in the light of a tight SGA calendar year. The 12 clubs were divided into the Red and White groups of six teams each. Tanah Merah, Raffles, Seletar, Keppel, Orchid and Laguna were drawn in the Red Group while SICC, NSRCC, Warren, Sembawang, Sentosa and Changi were placed in the White Group.
After the first-round league, contested over 15 games in a four-ball-bestball format, eight clubs made it to the quarter-finals for the knockout stage. The classification of the divisions is: four Premier Division, and six each for the A, B and Senior (55 years and above) divisions for men. For the women, there were two matches for the Premier and Evergreen (50 years and above) divisions and four for the A Division.
After an intense competition played on neutral venues, Seletar beat TMCC 8½-6½ and NSRCC beat SICC by the same margin in the semi-fi nals. And Seletar, after slipping to fourth last year from third in 2015, bounced back with the crown in style because as Pang says: “Our focus was on teamwork and the players’ commitment to stay consistent and competitive.” Pang, who took over the captaincy three years ago, is a 5.9 handicapper who has been playing golf for 22 years.
Club Managers' Association (Singapore) 