13 June, 2009

Rotation is almost here and sand oil golf….

Well as you probably guessed from the heading, it is almost time to jump into that Airbus 330 and head for the good ole U S of A. So as I prepare the last two days before I leave, let me catch you up with a little fun, well not really fun the first time but the second was great.

As many of you know, I love golf and try to play as often as I can. Well on my next to last trip back here, I brought my clubs back. There is one golf course in Jubail that is a full 18 hole and is quite a challenge it is called an Oil course. What is that you ask, well just wait it gets really good. In the early 1950’s a company called ARAMCO was established by an Oil man from the US that was hoping to strike it rich. He found a Saudi business partner, some money to back and the company was created. His idea was to create an environment that would entice Americans and other Western Expats to the Middle East to help drill, and refine their valuable resource, oil. In doing so he began to tailor a Western style compound that would eventually include a beautiful green golf course, grocery stores, villas, etc. This immediately caught on and others tried to imitate him but did not have all the resources required to build the same quality.

So in certain parts of the Middle East, golf courses were designed utilizing what they had the most of, sand and oil. Basically what you have is a full 18 hole golf course laid out in the sands of the desert areas, greens are built and because there is a lack of water to grow grass, they spray them with oil. After this is done they broom them which mixes the sand and the oil together to keep the sand from blowing and also make a putting surface that is almost like putting on grass. The same is done for the fairways about once a month which they try to lightly maintain to keep the roughness out and your ball has a chance to roll instead of hitting a clod and stopping. So with that little bit of history behind you, I have set the scene of my first experience playing on an Oil course.

So as you know Fridays are our only day off here, and it is usually spent sleeping as late as we can, usually for me about 6:30 in the morning, get up and get a shower, breakfast and then lay around all day trying to relax. This includes reading, watching something on TV, or lay out by the pool in the Hot sun. So the first few went off without a hitch and the afternoon would soon show to be quite interesting. This Friday we had planned on going to the Whispering Sand Golf Course for a little fun with the little white ball and introduce me to Middle East golf. So around 2:15 Steve knocks on my door and asks me if I am ready to go and of course I was. First thing was to put on some sun screen because the desert sun is very hot and you can burn very fast. Next was to grab the two bottles of water I had been chilling and of course my ball cap. We loaded our clubs in the car and headed out, a short 20 minute drive.

We arrived at the course about 2:50 and went in and paid our green and cart fees. Now for you avid golfers out there, this was a pull cart, not and electric or gas one. Yes we were going to walk all 18. The temperature was around 106 and the heat index was around 114. The course was very busy so they started us out on number 17 and then we could just keep on. We were good with that just ready to get started, so the three of us headed off to 17 to start our adventure. Oh I guess I should tell you that it was me, Steve who I have introduced before and Lum who is one of our other Managers around 63 or so. For his age he is in pretty great health if you ask me. We get to the tee box and they are both explaining to me the hold and how it plays. Steve gets up and hits and it is pretty good, Lum hits and it is also good. So my turn and, yah you guessed I flopped it, went about 60 yards and rolled to a stop. Well the game picked up from there and we were all hitting pretty good but not great. After about the fourth or fifth hole I looked at Steve and said, you know it’s not that bad out here, nope wrong thing to say. I neglected the part about only eating breakfast, drinking coffee all morning, and hardly touching water since I had been there.

Well about the 6th hole I was feeling pretty tired. I tried to suck down some water I had brought but it was almost like drinking hot tap water. I choked it down anyway because I needed it and tried to keep going. We finally made it to a hole that had a water jug, so I drank a couple of bottles full and wet my gold towel and put it over my head. The cold water felt great running down the back of my neck and I just sat there for awhile. Steve looked over at me and said hey bud you feeling ok, I just looked at him and said yah I will be fine just need to cool off for a little. So after awhile I felt better and it was my turn to hit anyway. I got up placed my ball and hit. It was pretty good for as drained as I felt. After putting the towel on my head and heading towards my ball, I did start feeling a little energy coming back. So each time we hit a water station I would tank up, fill my bottles back up and head out again.

Thankfully I made it through all 18 but let me tell you, by the time I drug my body back to the clubhouse, got my bag off the cart, and started walking towards the car, my butt was dragging the ground believe you me! When I got to the car Steve already had it turned on and the AC cooling it down. I threw my bag in the back and got in and just soaked up as much of that AC I could. We were pretty quiet on the way back because we both were pretty tired. I felt like I was close to the point of heat exhaustion and dehydration. I couldn’t get enough water in me and it just was feeling miserable like in Iraq. Well we made it back to the complex and I unloaded my clubs and dragged them up the stairs. Steve was talking about dinner and I said all I am going to do is take a cool shower and crash. That’s exactly what I did too, I went in and turned the water on where it was almost cold and got in and just stood there. The cool water felt good and slowly I could feel life coming back. I was in there about 15 or 20 minutes and when I emerged I was feeling about 50% better than when I went in. I was still drained though so I took a couple of Ibuprophen and hopped into bed. It wasn’t long before I was gone and in la la land once again.

The next day I was sore and still not feeling up to par but I was able to get out of bed, once again get a nice shower, dress and be at breakfast in time. It took me three days to get all my energy back and I swore that would never happen again. So the next week we took off because Lum was down in his back, probably from us acting crazy the week before, and decided to just hang out around the complex. I was good with that because there is no way I wanted to experiencing anything remotely close to the Friday before. So this week we decided to try again and this time I was going prepared. Earlier in the week I had obtained some drink mix that was like Gatorade and was supposed to keep your electrolytes in check. The night before, I had filled up three bottles and two liters of water so they would chill down. Once again put on the Sunscreen 50 and was ready to go again. Well needless to say it all worked good. We had a great game, thought we were going to lose Lum towards the end there. He was looking how I had felt the two weeks before. Anyway we did finish and Steve beat me by 2 strokes. All in all though the drink mix and heavy water helped tremendously.

Well that’s about it, I am headed home on Monday morning around 12:45 AM and so so ready! I am anxious to see Josh and Cassie’s new house, get things ready for the wedding, see mom and dad and Steve. I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can while I am home for three weeks. I do have a couple of Dr. appointments a dentist appointment and I am finally taking my PMP exam. So hopefully I will be able to squeeze some other things in there. Take care and have a great weekend. Be sure to check out the pictures.