Letter From Indonesia: Behind high-profile murder case, not your usual caddies - washingtonpost.com

Image by ALWH via Flickr

A culture of permissiveness on and off the links

By Andrew Higgins
Monday, November 2, 2009

TANGERANG, INDONESIA -- Modern Golf Club boasts an 18-hole course scented by tropical flowers, four tennis courts, a squash center and a big swimming pool. It's also the only club where, after a day on the links earlier this year, a golfer was shot twice in the head as he drove from the clubhouse in his BMW.

The chief suspect: a rival middle-aged golfer who, while running Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission, received off-the-green services from the victim's 22-year-old wife. They'd met on the golf course when she was working as his caddie.

In a mostly Muslim country where much of the political elite, including the president, plays golf, the saga has caused a sensation -- and also raised some delicate questions about why so many of Indonesia's caddies are beautiful young women.

At Modern, nearly 200 of the club's 250 caddies are women, mostly in their 20s. "You cannot have an ugly face or a smelly person in the front line," explained Bonnie Umboh, the club's sales and marketing manager. Moreover, she said, female caddies are much better at calming golfers, nearly all men, when they flub a putt or drive into the rough. When women carry golfers' clubs, "they hold their temper."

But, according to some female caddies, that is not all they hold. "They like to pretend they are teaching me how to hit a golf ball, you know, hugging me from behind and touching my thighs," said one Modern caddie. She asked that her name not be used. Groping golfers, she said, "usually give big tips, so I don't mind."

She sometimes meets golfers off duty and charges 500,000 rupiah, about $54, for a night in a hotel "but there are other caddies, top caddies, who get almost 1,000,000 per night."

Modern said it has a strict policy against golfers getting overly intimate with caddies, at least on the course, and encourages the reporting of unwelcome advances. "So far there are no complaints," said Umboh, the sales manager. Before joining Modern's caddie roster, new recruits get training in the rudiments of golf and learn how to drive a golf cart, and to smile a lot.

Golf in Indonesia, like in most of the world, is governed by rules set in Scotland by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which dates back to 1754. Its rulebook covers how much time a golfer can search for a lost ball (five minutes), the length of club shafts and other arcane details. But the Royal and Ancient has no view on the sex or age of caddies, nor on what players and caddies do together beyond hitting golf balls.

"That is not in our jurisdiction," said Kevin Barker of the Scottish club's Rules Department, "What happens off the course is neither here nor there."

Female caddies are hardly a uniquely Indonesian phenomenon. A British company called Eye Candy Caddies markets itself with the slogan "golf made gorgeous." It charges nearly $400 for a round of golf and an hour of post-game chat in the clubhouse. Its caddies "are not encouraged to fraternize with clients after an assignment has ended," according to a code of conduct. (At least one British club has banned its services.)

But female caddies are far more widespread in Indonesia and often wear more revealing outfits, despite a campaign by Muslim activists to purge "immoral" conduct. In Tangerang, the town west of Jakarta where Modern golf club is located, a local Islamic bylaw prohibits lewd behavior.

Dispute now in court

Exactly what happened at Modern and in a room at the Grand Mahakam Hotel is now under review by a Jakarta court, which recently began the murder trial of Indonesia's busted corruption-buster, Antasari Azhar. Prosecutors allege he had the husband of his former caddie killed to escape blackmail. Azhar has denied any involvement. His lawyers accused prosecutors of presenting "porn material" instead of evidence. Local television carried the proceedings live.

With golf under the spotlight, the Indonesia Golf Association has "asked clubs to strengthen the rules for caddies," said England Rachman, the association's executive secretary. But, said Rachman, golfers and caddies "can do what they want outside of working hours. As long as people are happy this is their personal business."

Rachman said he prefers to have a man carry his clubs when he wants to play a serious game but likes a woman to do it when "I just want to relax." Male caddies, he said, tend to be older and know more about the game, and this means they can spot mistakes and offer advice: "Sometimes I don't like that. Women just follow and smile."

Not all Indonesian golfers are men. The trade minister, Mari Pangestu, a respected American-educated economist, likes to play and uses a male caddie, as do many of Indonesia's more traditional-minded golfers. The president, former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, goes to a military sports club that has only male caddies.

At the Jakarta Golf Club, where Indonesia's late dictator, Suharto, used to play, male caddies still far outnumber female ones, and they're determined to hold the line against what they see as an escalating threat to golf, and their own livelihood. "I'm more experienced and stronger. But players like to pick young pretty ones," grumbled 47-year-old Taufik Hidayat.

Modern Golf Club, meanwhile, has just held a big tournament and gala dinner to celebrate its 14th anniversary. When the golf, sex and murder saga first made headlines, said the sales manager, Umboh, some golfers stayed away from Modern under pressure from their wives. But all the bad publicity, she said, had since become "free promotion. The plus is that people now know where Modern is. They want to come here to play golf."