JAWS: The early days … !

First JAWS games, left to right – Avnish P, Audie, Chris, Stuart, Akita, Simon , Aleksi, Naresh & Divya

What started as a personal desire to find likeminded friends who may be able to play weekday golf morphed into the JAWS GOLF SOCIETY

Technically in December 2019 around the 22nd , some of us friends who were planning to stay in Jakarta for the New Year Holidays decided, why not use the holidays for some great rounds of golf?

And so on the suggestion of Roger Finnie, we then set up a whats app group, contacted the courses and with about 12 to 14 friends played till early January 2020 through the holidays , assuming that’s that.

Then, in January more friends contacted us and wanted to join and play weekdays and there was born the first molecule of an idea of a weekday golf society for all that transformed into JAWS with our first formal game being played on the 4th of February at MATOA GC

the first 3 admins of JAWS , Left to Right , Chris Lever , Divya Ahuja , Simon Reynolds

It has been a tumultuous time with Covid in more than one way, but GOLF for many of us, gave it some semblance and sanity.

where the idea developed – Chris & Divya – Founders of JAWS

Now that 2 plus years have past, it is not only time to introspect but also time to review, learn, improve and most of all, celebrate what has become of an idea that came to life.

JAWS Review 2020-2022

Summary of Achievements

  1. Our greatest achievement is creating a friendly International community of golfers where new friendships have been formed.
  2. JAWS was formally established in January 2020 by Divya, Chris and Simon.
  3. First game played in early February at Matoa Golf Course.
  4. Membership grew from 3 to over 240 and growing.
  5. JAWS Admin team (The core committee that runs JAWS GOLF SOCIETY) was grown with the addition of first James Bristow, followed by John Packer and then followed by Jim Korbilas, finally as James due to personal commitments had to relinquish his role, Pras Sutowo was the final cog that joined the JAWS ADMIN TEAM wheel.
  6. The Website, newsletter and links to social media were established in April.
  7. The fantastic manual handicap system designed & maintained initially by James Bristow was transitioned to the online system ehandicap.net maintained by our partner society, now everyone can check their handicaps anywhere and have valid global handicaps to play anywhere around the world.
  8. Tuesday and Friday games became the norm.
  9. First JAWS Charity Day was organised in Sept 2020 with 94 participants and raised IDR 60,000,000 for Lestari Sayang Anak.
  10. Sponsors helped set the tone/vision to reality- No joining fees and no money to be taken for managing the society from players, thank you to our first sponsor and partner Via.com and to all the subsequent sponsors and partners for helping us realize this vision of Social weekday golf for everyone
  11. Played the first JAWS matchplay with SHARK Hari Taufik being our first Shark 2020 winner.
  12. Created branded JAWS Merchandise such as Caps and T-shirts, Medals and Trophies.
  13. First JAWS captain was appointed as Tralok Singh who ensured a win in our first intersociety game.
  14. Launched loyalty merchandise of the Jaws Black Caps, these needed to be earned by playing a minimum of 10 rounds as a JAWS Shark and today over 58 Sharks wear this Black cap with pride
  15. Government of Indonesia organized and invited JAWS for a Golf Tourism fam trip to BALI
  16. Established close links with TeeSet and DOGS societies with inter society games.
  17. JAWS gave out FREE JAWS branded DRI FIT JAWS T-Shirts to over 400 SHARKS, besides FREE branded JAWS face masks and black loyalty JAWS caps for all JAWS SHARKS.
  18. Created special outstation events run by Captain Willi G , to Bali , Bandung and other cities
  19. Created fun special events games such as 2 man scramble, the 4-club challenge and Mulligan challenge.

So what is in store next? Where is JAWS going in 2023 ?

  1. 2023 we plan to contract again with over 20 different courses for our weekly games.
  2. We plan to play 106 games with 20 plus special events.
  3. We plan to not pay more than IDR 675,000 rupiah for a game unless it is a special event.
  4. JAWS Anniversary Cup will take place in the first quarter and will also become a franchise and a co-branded yearly event.
  5. The JAWS World Cup a new JAWS franchise created and co-branded by partner Singgasana Hotels will also start its 3 rd year of competition in February and have 4 special events.
  6. JAWS Matchplay now a co-branded event will start in February and end in November 2023.
  7. The JAWS Charity Day partnership will continue and will also be a franchise and cobranded event to be held in second / third quarter of 2023
  8. A Monthly special event will take place each month.
  9. 2023 also starts with the launch of new Merchandise, for the first time with the support of our Sponsor Partners,
  10. 2023 will also see the introduction of 2 new styles of JAWS branded clothing merchandise for all SHARKS.
  11. Simon Reynolds takes it forward as the JAWS Inter league Captain with the able support of new appointment as Vice Captain, Bobby C.
  12. Finally the goal is to create more shared responsibility and decentralization keeping the JAWS Vision as the society grows and evolves further.

Thank you everyone for being a part of the SHARK family , onwards and upwards together.

JAWS SHARKS FOREVER.

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