Monday, December 16th
Pleasant Valley
1st Les Cobban (9) 34 points
2nd Michael Brett (15) 29 points
3rd Alan Howard (20) 29 points
4th Mark Hayward (16) 28 points
Near pins, Brendan Harnett, & Les Cobban X 2.
For some reason a few people don’t like Pleasant Valley even though it is always in decent condition, so a smaller than expected high season gathering for today’s game.
As has been the case for the past several games the wind was up again today making for tricky conditions although this doesn’t explain the very poor scoring which was in sharp contrast with last Friday’s game at Hermes when the scoring was exceptional. Nobody came to grips with the conditions although the winner, Les Cobban looked like doing the business with twenty-one on the front nine only to fade away on the back, still enough to take first place. Michael Brett edged out Alan Howard on countback for second place. Les Cobban got both his near pins on the front nine with Brendan Harnett getting one on seventeen, thirteen remaining unclaimed.
The age-old problem of slow play reared its ugly head again today with the second group losing two holes on the front group after only four holes, even worse they did not observe the etiquette of golf and call the following group through until well into the front nine, how to fix this problem remains a mystery. The problem was exacerbated today with a couple of walkers in the second group although there were walkers in the first group also.
Wednesday, December 18th
Mountain Shadow
1st Dave Ashman (27) 33 points
2nd Steve Downes (6) 32 points
3rd Andy Wederburn (20) 31 points
4th Keith Norman (20) 31 points
Near pins Gerry Cooney, Dave Ashman, & Michael Brett
The low scoring of Monday continued on again today although Mountain Shadow is a much more difficult course so there was that excuse if one was required. A more respectable field of eighteen although there were just as many who didn’t play.
Having invested in a new driver recently which is already paying for itself, Dave Ashman took first place with thirty-three points one ahead of Steve Downes. A countback for third where Andy Winterburn edged out Keith Norman. Gerry Cooney almost got a hole in one on the fifth par three, Dave Ashman and Michael Brett also got near pins with one unclaimed
The Mountain Shadow course is already showing signs of high season as it’s now starting to go brown. The fairways were cut very short which doesn’t help, the greens were lightning fast today, the bunkers were better than we have seen them for a long time.
A feature of this course is the number of dogs found around the place, which makes a change from monkeys as is the case nearby at Bangpra. It’s nice to report that all look very healthy and well cared for, most are very friendly which is a bit unusual as most dogs on courses seem to be particularly wary of farangs.
Friday,December 20th
Pattavia
1st Steve Downes (6) 38 points
2nd Mark Hayward (16) 37 points
3rd Kevin LaBar (13) 37 points
4th Gerry Cooney (28) 35 points
Near pins Dave Playford, Mark Hayward, Steve Downes, & Kevin LaBar.
Finally, after a week of low scores we had something to shout about today with some good scores returned. Steve Downes with four birdies in his round took first place with thirty-eight points, it has to be said that he was neck and neck with Kevin LaBar all day but with a birdie on the last and a bogey from Kevin he scraped through for the win. Worse luck for Kevin who lost second place on countback to Mark Hayward. The sob story of the day went to John Hughes who with twenty-one on the back nine felt sure he had secured fourth place only to be beaten on countback by Gerry Cooney who had a very fine back nine score of twenty-three. Three of the winners took near pins with Dave Playford taking the fourth.
The Pattavia course is still holding up reasonably but starting to dry out a bit as expected in the dry season, the greens were significantly up two point five on the stimp meter compared to our last visit which is a huge increase in speed.
Next week we have some changes to our roster with Emerald replacing Navy on Monday and Hermes back on again on Friday, the mid-week game is at Khao Kheow.
Winner at Pleasant Valley, Les Cobban.
Dave Ashman, winner at Mountain Shadow.