I finally made it on to a golf course in Turkey! After eight months of facing the impediments of lack of venues–three courses within two hours drive, a result of the fact that Turkey was never part of the English Empire–and transportation–not only do I not own a car or have a golfing buddy with one (actually I do have a buddy, the Headmaster, who plays but he has been incapacitated by back pain following from a lifetime of American football)–I accompanied my golf club to Klassis Golf Club this past weekend. It was a notably Turkish adventure.
This year I have been the assistant to a teaching pro, Adnan, who comes in on Wednesday and as a group we have hit soft balls in the gym from astroturf mats every week with one exception when I took the kids up to the soccer field and we chipped off real grass with regulation balls five months ago.
But with the high school golf tournament season approaching we scheduled a practice round for a Saturday and I was chagrined to find that it wold cost each student $60! I lurchingly discovered my responsibilities about permission slips, transportation and fees, successfully getting all forms filled out for a variety of obligations.
One, we had to obtain licenses for each golfer. Here in Turkey to compete in a high school varsity sport, you must be deemed proficient by your coach and with the submission of proper forms the Ministry of Education certifies you. Then, two weeks before a student trip, details of travel and a roster must be submitted. Then, of course parental permission slips must be completed and returned. Just like all my written exams, these papers must be archived for two years! I’ve not seen the attic where all this paper is stored but it must be voluminous.
Our practice was on Saturday to be followed by tournament rounds Sunday and Tuesday. Sets of forms for all three days were submitted. Then on the Wednesday before our outings, we were informed the Golf Federation was rescheduling the first two tournaments; I was not told why. This is typical of the top-down hierarchy here: the leadership commands and you obey.
One, we had to obtain licenses for each golfer. Here in Turkey to compete in a high school varsity sport, you must be deemed proficient by your coach and with the submission of proper forms the Ministry of Education certifies you. Then, two weeks before a student trip, details of travel and a roster must be submitted. Then, of course parental permission slips must be completed and returned. Just like all my written exams, these papers must be archived for two years! I’ve not seen the attic where all this paper is stored but it must be voluminous.
Our practice was on Saturday to be followed by tournament rounds Sunday and Tuesday. Sets of forms for all three days were submitted. Then on the Wednesday before our outings, we were informed the Golf Federation was rescheduling the first two tournaments; I was not told why. This is typical of the top-down hierarchy here: the leadership commands and you obey.
But on Saturday morning I met five students (one other we were to pick up along the way and the seventh would meet us at the course) at the center of campus at 8 AM to board a service bus (Robert College does not own any buses; rather, they contract out the task of transporting 750 kids everyday from all over Istanbul to the school and from the campus to the numerous after school events). These buses are also contracted out to private organizations and are a common site on the streets. Ours are sixteen seat Mercedes vehicles, carpeted with captains seats. The particular vehicle Saturday even had a TV and tables for facing seats. Turks do many things with great style.
The drive took almost two hours, more than one hour on the freeway. Istanbul is dense but not in the manner of Manhattan. Because of the active earthquake zone, buildings are generally less than twenty stories. But the city stretches as far as you can see in all directions. To drive from the airport on the western edge of the city across the Bosphorus to the eastern extremity is all of 60 km, possibly 80 of uninterrupted urban development.
After an hour on the freeway getting out of the urban area, open landscape began to appear and we turned onto potholed narrow blacktop roads for another thirty minutes where tractors outnumbered cars, finally arriving at the Klassis Golf Course and Hotel in the midst of rolling cultivated fields.
Lovely but slightly down at the heels, with only twenty cars in the parking lot, the resort seemed to just be getting by. The pro shop had Titleist and Odyssey displays racks that were completely empty as well as dusty empty shelves. It is early in the season but there was in fact a tournament underway (no one had informed me of that fact) which inexplicably had only Japanese entrants. I now discovered that Adnan was head pro here (he had never told me this) and he was leading a group class of 8-10 year-olds.
Because of the tournament, my club was restricted to the nine-hole instructional facility, short, a little rough around the edges though the course proper looked well-maintained and interesting, winding up and down hill, fairways carved out of the forest, with cow bells and cuckoo calls (yep, they sound just like the clocks!) wafting in the air.
We had a fine time and my charges, three of whom had never set foot on a course before, enjoyed themselves. I holed an 85 meter tee shot and my playing partners were duly impressed as was I: I’d never had a hole-in-one before though this one certainly has an asterisk at 85 meters. I bought the whole club candy bars in celebration.
We were home by 6 PM and now I still look forward to being on a regulation course, to filling out many other sets of paperwork in the weeks ahead, and continuing to often not understanding what is going on around me.
We had a fine time and my charges, three of whom had never set foot on a course before, enjoyed themselves. I holed an 85 meter tee shot and my playing partners were duly impressed as was I: I’d never had a hole-in-one before though this one certainly has an asterisk at 85 meters. I bought the whole club candy bars in celebration.
We were home by 6 PM and now I still look forward to being on a regulation course, to filling out many other sets of paperwork in the weeks ahead, and continuing to often not understanding what is going on around me.
RSS Feed