Monday, August 12th
Mountain Shadow
1st Les Cobban (11) 41 points
2nd Greg Berry (16) 36 points
3rd Stuart Stammers (11) 35 points
Near pins, Hubert Stiefenhofer X 2, & Colin Greig X 2.
With a couple of locals out of action and a few more away at Soi Dao we could only muster a field of fourteen for today’s game at Mountain Shadow, still not too bad for low season. Once again we were hit by the scourge of golf, slow play as a society known for slow play was out ahead of us.
The course was in decent condition apart from the bunkers which were a shambles. A light breeze did not affect play.
Scores were very good today for this course where a mid thirties score is usually enough to win. Les Cobban had a day to remember shooting a brilliant forty-one points, five ahead of Greg Berry in second place. Stuart Stammers took third a further stroke back. The near pins were shared equally between Hubert Stiefenhofer and Colin Greig.
The difficult par five fourteenth around the lake is one where most golfers are happy with a bogey, today we had a most unusual occurrence when a player from the first, second and fourth groups all birdied the hole. Stuart Stammers chipped in from about thirty yards out, Michael Brett putted from off the green about thirty feet from the flag, and les Cobban also sank a long putt, such is golf.
Wednesday, August 14th
Plutaluang North & West
1st Anders Nielsen (27) 32 points
2nd Greg Berry (16) 32 points
3rd Colin Greig (14) 32 points
4th Les Cobban (11) 31 points
5th Alan Sullivan (14) 31 points
Near pins Bil Richardson, Greg Berry, Les Cobban, & Michael Brett.
It had to happen sooner or later and today was the day when we got a drenching. It started on the third hole and continued to pour down heavily for about twenty minutes, thereafter the sun came out and the humidity went through the roof. The course held up remarkably well with very few plugged or mub balls, there was no need for pick, clean, and place. In fact the North and West nines are just about as good as we have ever seen them.
There was another good roll-up with twenty-one players in attendance, there was a rumour that Gary Smith’s twin brother would make an appearance, alas just like Gary’s attendance the rumour was wildly exaggerated, perhaps one day we may see him again. We have also sent out an SOS for another Scotsman, Jack Best who is yet to make an appearance, perhaps he is having too much fun in Pattaya.
Nobody came to grips with the course today resulting in very modest scoring, nevertheless it was tight at the top with a three-way countback to decide the placings, the Great Dane Anders Nielsen taking it from Greg Berry and Colin Greig, likewise fourth and fifth were also decided on countback. The near pins were shared between Bil Richardson, Les Cobban, Greg Berry, and Michael Brett. Shot of the day went to Les Cobban chipping in for a birdie from ninety yards out on the fifteenth.
Friday August 16th
Emerald
1st Colin Greig (13) 37 points
2nd Uwe Jorgensen (27) 37 points
3rd Greg Berry (16) 37 points
Near pins Stuart Stammers, Bil Richardson, Dave Galvin, & Michael Brett.
It seems our good fortune with the weather has finally deserted us, today we got rained on not once but twice, heavy on each occasion. Rain covers and umbrellas got a good workout, we even had to stop play for a while on the front nine. Despite that we finished in good time as we had the course to ourselves.
The fairways and bunkers were probably as good as we have seen at Emerald, however the greens were disaster zones, extremely slow and covered with moss or fungus in many areas It seems they have been cored and sanded several times this year but nothing they do seems to work, the rain didn’t help either.
Despite the weather and the greens, scoring was quite decent today with a good tussle at the top of the leaderboard, in fact the standings had to be settled by countback for the second time this week as listed above. A couple of other good scores just missed out. All the near pins were taken as listed.
Les Cobban, a star at Mountain Shadow.
Anders Nielsen, breakthrough winner at Navy.
Colin Greig, winner at Emerald