Monday, August 25th
Pattaya Country Club
1st Steve Elles (9) 37 points
2nd Alan Howard (21) 33 points
3rd Kevin LaBar (16) 32 points
Near pins Gerry Cooney, Steve²³ Elles, & Craig Dows.
First game of the week was played at Pattaya Country Club in mostly sunshine although rain threatened early in the round with caddies requesting rain covers, luckily the clouds blew away and we finished in bright sunshine. Once again arriving early at the course we were able to tee off ahead of our scheduled time. The round felt a bit slow but we still finished in reasonable time.
The course was in excellent condition, the fairways were among the best we have seen lately. Despite the greens being very nice a few new members were inducted into the three putters club. A fairly strong wind blew all day and for some peculiar reason rarely seemed to favour us.
Scores were modest with only Steve Elles putting in a good shift with a score of thirty-seven points off a nine handicap, pretty good, Alan Howard who has found his groove regularly in the winners circle took second place with thirty-three points, one ahead of Kevin LaBar in third. Near pins were as listed with strangely the sixteenth unclaimed.
Wednesday, August 27th
Treasure Hill
1st Alan Howard (21) 33 points
2nd Robbie Watts (13) 32 points
3rd Michael Brett (16) 31 points
4th Greg Berry (14) 31 points
Near pins Greg Berry, Gerry Cooney, Steve Elles, & Uwe Jurgensen.
As we drove up hwy 331 to the course rain started falling and became increasingly heavy until we got to the course, by which time it had stopped completely, so we thought we were in for a lucky day., alas, not to be.
We were allowed to tee off early but were advised that there was a six-ball ahead on the front nine so we should start on the back nine which we did. All went well and we finished the back nine in good time and started our second nine on the front nine. All was good for five holes when wouldn’t you know it we ran up against the six-ball which had now morphed into an eight ball, so everything ground to a snail’s pace. Frustration boiled over into anger as the eight ball were unbelievably slow and despite a request to let us play through, they scoffed at the idea and just continued on at what appeared to be an increasingly slow pace infuriating one player to the point where he quit and went for a shower. The temptation to hit up on them was very hard to resist and restraint prevailed in case a caddie got some unwanted free time.
In the winners circle every time he plays Alan Harris did it again today with a winning score of thirty-three, a decent score given the difficulty of the course. Robbie Watts took second place one back. After a long spell with injury and gaining three strokes on his handicap following a run of low scores, Michael Brett took third on countback from Greg Berry. All the near pins were taken today as listed.
Friday, August 29th
Pattavia
1st Dave Galvin (23) 40 points
2nd Steve Elles (9) 37 points
3rd Alan Howard (21) 37 points
Near pins Greg Berry, Les Cobban, Dave Galvin, & Steve Elles.
The last game of August was played at Pattavia in bright sunshine with a breeze blowing which for the second time this week hardly ever seemed to favour us.
The course was in very good condition but the greens were difficult as ever, one golfer was guilty of five putting, another was reported to have played one hundred and forty strokes, quite how that was allowed to happen within his group is a mystery, a competition round should not degenerate into a practice round.
A remarkable round of forty points saw Dave Galvin take first place, and that was without his antique heirloom brass putter, who knows how much more he would have scored had he had it? We believe he has sent it away for polishing. Second time this week in the winners circle for Steve Elles who could have made it three had he not walked off on Wednesday in frustration when he had a good score going with only three holes to play. One who did make it three was third placed Alan Howard who clearly is in a rich vein of form. As is often the case those in the winners circle got near pins, Steve Elles and Dave Galvin with one each, the other two went to Greg Berry and Les Cobban.
Having played consistently steady golf all month Alan Howard took his first ever golfer of the month trophy by a sizeable margin.
Steve Elles, winner at Pattaya Country Club.
Dave Galvin, big winner at Pattavia.
Alan Howard, winner at Treasure Hill & Golfer of the Month.
