Fatmawati Kecil Rumored To Become A Football Ground

To make way for a newly proposed "metro" terminal, the Lebak Bulus football stadium is looking for a new home. The proposed and preferred spot is most likely going to be the land that is now occupied by Fatmawati Kecil, the 9-holes golf course that, since the 70-ties, has been the breeding ground for local and foreign golfers alike who wanted to hone their golfing skills.

Nine out of ten golfers that picked up the game while based in Jakarta will think back of their "Fatmawati Kecil" experience and surely have fond memories of the days when they were trying to make the big step from this 9-holes layout to the "real stuff" that courses in Indonesia are made of.

As it truly is a "hackers" heaven - where no one really cares about how bad or how slow you play - it is here where over the past three to four decades many golfers made the transition from driving range to fairways and greens.

Personally, I fondly think back to one particular day in the early 90-ties, when Chris Lupgens, one of our mad golfing buddies, expedited a ball in the direction of his caddie who, impatiently, had made his way onto the fairway. Once hit, like a sack of potatoes the man dropped to "mother earth" and when he came back to live, we lifted him over the fence of the adjacent Fatmawati hospital for a scan and to see if all of his brain was still intact.

Joyful about the good news that he suffered no severe injury, we jumped the fence back on to the course and continued play. Timidly the wounded caddie rejoined our group wearing a helmet for the remainder of the round.

If all goes the way it's planned, aspiring first-time golfers will have to look for a new place that welcomes warmly "golfers of a lesser God".