Weekend Recap

This weekend was great, but very exhausting! I went over to one of our partner's houses on Friday evening right after work for dinner. Traffic was absolutely awful, so I ended up arriving about an hour later than planned (the reason why it was especially bad this whole weekend is below).

After getting back to the residence pretty late on Friday evening, I got up at 5:45am for an early tee time at Eagleton Golf Club. Here's a pic on our drive out to the course.














Our total group consisted of six people, so we split up into two threesomes. I ended up pairing up with a guy from Oxford, England and Melbourne, Australia. This course hosted a small tour tournament last week, so the course was in very good shape, but was playing extremely tough. They had let the rough grow pretty thick for the tournament, and it was evident it had not been cut since the tournament. Not hitting fairways in regulation was brutal! Combined with the tough course conditions, not having played in almost two months, and playing with loaner clubs, I actually played pretty decent. I'm looking forward already to playing with the same group again next Saturday! We had to book a tee time this weekend for next weekend as it is extremely tough to secure one since there are only two public golf courses in the city (and roughly 8 million people).

When we pulled up to the course, it reminded me of Caddyshack as they have this 'hut' out front where there are about 30 some odd caddies waiting on patrons to arrive. As soon as a car pulls up, they all rush out to your car for you to pick them to be your caddy. Fortunately, the guys I played with are 'regulars' and have a small continent of caddies they use just about every time, so they made the decision for me. There are no golf carts at this club, you just walk the course and have a caddie to carry your bag for you, mark your ball, help you read puts, determine distances, etc. It's quite a different experience than a typical round in the states, and certainly for the better! You, of course, have to tip your caddy, but I will just say that our group tipped about twice as much as the majority of golfers at this club, and the total tip was not even half what it would have cost in the states for a cart fee.

This city was absolutely packed all weekend long due to the Ganesha Festival (Ganesh Chaturthi) this weekend, more commonly called Vinayaka Chavithi in Kannada where I live. This festival is to celebrate a day in which Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati, is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees. Ganesha is one of the most widely worshipped deities in Hindu, and is easily recognized by his elephant head. The last two weeks, all I have seen on the side of the road have been ganapathi idols made from plaster. People purchase these for the final day of the festival to immerse them into bodies of water by devotees. It is believed that after Ganesha's return to earth for this day, by immersing these idols in water they are sending him back and chant for him to return again next year.