Monday, September 9th
Pattavia
1st Kevin LaBar (12) 40 points
2nd Tony Robbins (24) 39 points
3rd Geoff Parker (23) 34 points
Near pins Jimmy Carr, Tony Robbins, & Kevin LaBar.
The first game of a new week was played at Pattavia, a course that polarised opinions. Today there was general agreement about the course, fairways well grassed and green, bunkers ok, but the greens were unbelievably slow for this course, probably the slowest that anyone can remember. Where there was total agreement was about the state of the changing rooms/ showers. On entry there was already a bad smell which did not bode well. The showers was where the real problem lay. Three shower cubicles were closed for repair, one had no soap or shampoo dispensers, there was no hot water in any, worst of all one cubicle had broken glass on the floor. So incensed was one member that he immediately after escaping without cut feet went to the managers office and got him to go into the shower area to see in what poor condition they were.
Some adapted well to the slow greens, none better than Kevin LaBar who compiled a very fine score of forty points, he did have a slight advantage as its his home course and he had his favourite caddy on the bag. Not far behind was Tony Robbins with one stroke adrift, easy when there are no water carries with which to contend. Geoff Parker brought up the rear with thirty-four points. The day just kept getting better for Kevin winning all three sixes and taking two two near pins, the other two going to Jimmy Carr and Tony Robbins.
Wednesday, September 11th
Bangpra
1st Les Cobban (9) 35 points
2nd Takeshi Hakozaki (17) 32 points
3rd Jimmy Carr (20) 32 points
Near pins Steve Downs, Dave Galvin, & Michael Brett.
We were back at Bangpra for the third week in a row, mostly due to the cancellation of our game at Eastern Star because the greens were being cored and sanded. The scourge of Bangpra struck again with a number of five and six balls on the course, despite that we were never held up unduly and completed the round in reasonable time.
Lights out at the clubhouse meant we went to very dark changing rooms with no windows, dimly lit with a few candles, they did provide a peculiar inappropriate ambience but were of little help in changing for golf and applying sunscreen, they did however get some in the mood for after golf activity.
Overall a difficult day for scoring with only Les Cobban posting a respectable score despite a mid-round collapse where he only scored three points in four consecutive holes, goes to show how good the rest of his round was. A countback for second where Takeshi Hakozaki took it from Jimmy Carr. The second hole, a long par three near pin was unclaimed with several finding the water in front of the green, The other three went to Steve Downs and Michael Brett with Dave Galvin taking the long seventeenth using a driver from the tee, a practice banned during the time Peter Allen was with us, we may have to revisit that rule again.
Our Late October/November trip to Khao Yai is proving very popular with a strong contingent already booked to make the trip. Anyone from overseas interested in this trip should contact Geoff Parker at the earliest opportunity to register their intent. We expect an influx of regular seasonal visitors from the UK at this time and it’s an opportunity to play some special courses they may not have played before, in particular Khao Yai Country Club is a must.
Friday, September 13th
Greenwood C & B.
1st Greg Berry (14) Net 68
2nd Uwe Jurgensen (27) Net 73
3rd Jimmy Carr (20) Net 74.
4th Craig Dows (10) Net 74
Near pins Uwe Jurgensen, Craig Dows, & Greg Berry.
Our last game of the week was played at the Greenwood course on the C & B nines. We had the course virtually to ourselves so we were able to tee off at our leisure and finish a quick round in record fashion. As always Greenwood was in fine fettle, no cause for complaint with the course.
We are currently seeing a trend where the same names keep coming up in the winners list, all of today’s winners have been regulars in recent weeks. Top of the pack with a magnificent net sixty-eight score was reigning golfer of the month Greg Berry, is he going to repeat this month? Another regular winner was Uwe Jurgensen in second place with a net seventy-three. Jimmy Carr took third on countback from Craig Dows. Today only three of the four near pins were taken going to Uwe Jurgensen, Greg Berry , and Craig Dows, The C3 is a particularly difficult hole so little surprise nobody got that one.
Next week’s games are at Emeralda, Khao Kheow, and Mountain Shadow.
Having been closed in recent months for alterations to at least three holes, we are looking forward to getting back to Parichat again as it got favourable reviews on our last two visits.
Kevin LaBar, winner at Pattavia.
Les Cobban, winner at Bangpra
Greg Berry, Winner at Greenwood.