Barclays Open

This afternoon, we attended the Barclays SG Open at Sentosa Golf Club. When we arrived on the island, the roads were already packed with cars parked along the side streets and car park. We parked our car at the sheltered parking lot at Sentosa Cove and took a free shuttle bus to the golf course.

Our first venue was the WSG hospitality lounge for patrons. We got ourselves a perfect spot inside the air-conditioned marquee, which overlooked the 9th and 18th hole of the Serapong Course. We then helped ourselves to the nice buffet spread consisting of steam cod fish, curry prawns, braised lamb, pasta with sun dried tomatoes, sushi, desserts etc. There were also free flow of soft drinks, beers and wines.

From the lounge, we saw legendary greats like Angel Cabrera, Lee Westwood and Adam Scott (defending champion) doing their 9th hole putts on the green. They played in 3-ball fully escorted by an entourage of caddies, marshalls, spectators and media.

To get closer to the players, we decided to walk down the 18th hole. That's when we caught up with Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and K J Choi at the 17th hole Par 3 course. All 3 players scored a birdie for that hole with ease. Mickelson almost scored a hole-in-one but the ball bounced off the flag. There was a large group of spectators following the threesome and it was almost impossible to get a close-up view of the players and their swing. The last time we watched the Lexus Cup, we were able to get closer to the players like Annika Sorenstam and Grace Park.

On the last teeing box, the players gave their most powerful and accurate swing with the balls landing on the fairway some 280m away, avoiding the many big bunkers and water hazard. How do we know that it was that far? 'Cause we had to trudge a very long way to get to where the ball landed! The group finished the Par 5 with Singh and Choi both scoring a par and Mickelson, a birdie.

It seems that the players didn't do so well today due to the scorching heat and the challenging course. After 3 rounds, Cabrera is leading the game with a -9 to par, with Jin Park in 2nd place (-5) and Westwood in 3rd (-4). Singh and Scott are in 4th position with -3 to par. We shall see who will take home the title and US$634k of the US$4mil prize money tomorrow.

After watching the 3 play, we headed to the VIP lounge hoping to get a close up of the players. The media was stationed outside to interview them, and Quincy Quek (an amateur player from SG) was one of those who gamely obliged to the request. He played pretty well for an amateur.

We caught some players leaving and fans begging for autograph. And all we wanted were closeup shots of them. Were a little disappointed that we did not catch some of them leaving as they went via a different exit, and Cabrera did not stop for autograph and with the bodyguards surrounding him it was impossible to take any pix. How unfriendly!

It was great to re-acquaint with the game and see the world's famous players in action for this world class event. It's unfortunate that we did not get to see Ernie Els play as he didn't make the cut yesterday. He is the World's no. 4 though. I wonder if we would get to see Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia play in SG some day...