Jakarta, November 18 The third day of the BNI Indonesian Masters 2023 Presented by TNE, it is still dominated by Gaganjeet Bhullar, who played well from the start of the match; he even got four birdies from the first nine holes alone. Playing with Patrick Reed and Richard T. Lee didn’t make Bhullar lose. Despite getting a boogie on the 16th hole, Bhullar could not be caught by other competitors, with a total of 20 under par at the end of the third day. Meanwhile, in second place, David Puig played well by getting nine birdies, so that by the third day he had a total of 13 under par. This player from LIV Golf showed that he is one of the world’s great young player prospects. Then Ben Cambell from Australia finished third with a total of 12 under par, with contributions of 7 biridies, 1 eagle, and 1 boogie, enough to make Ben the third-best player to date.
Today’s weather at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club reached 38 degrees Celsius during the day, so many players complained about this condition, one of whom was Anirban Lahiri, an Indian player who once won the 2014 Indonesian Masters. He felt that the heat today was consuming a lot of his energy.
“I don’t have any problems with the condition of the court, but today’s heat is extraordinary; actually, I played neither too bad nor well today, but many of my puts didn’t go in, maybe because of the heat today,” said Anirban Lahiri.
Apart from all the stories about today’s match, there is one thing that caught my attention on the third day. Because today is a Saturday or weekend, many spectators come to watch the match, but what is different from last year is that many young spectators come to watch the golf match. which is said to be an “old man’s” sport, many young people flock to walk around the 18 holes just to follow star players like Patrick Reed.
This indicates the increasing diversity of golf fans in Indonesia. I had a chance to chat with several young spectators. When I asked why they liked golf, most of them said that they started looking at it during the pandemic. Currently, golf is one of the sports that can be played and is permitted by the government. Since then, more and more young people came to the driving range and golf course, and as a result, two years later, many golf courses were fully booked because there were more and more people interested, not only people who had been playing golf for a long time, but many young people began to dare to play golf.
With this condition, there are many positive sides to the world of golf in Indonesia. Apart from the golf industry, which is developing, many young talents are emerging because they are starting to dare to play golf or join a golf club, so that in this way the government and the authorities can more easily carry out coaching, and the ultimate goal is that Indonesia will have golf players who excel on the world stage.
