Monday, December 23rd
Emerald
1st Steve Downes (5) 36 points
2nd Alan Howard (20) 35 points
3rd Mike Milland (17) 33 points
4th Hubert Stiefenhofer (16) 33 points
Near pins Mike Milland, Steve Downes, Hubert Stiefenhofer, & Neil Griffin.
It might sound crazy to say but the greens at Emerald were the best feature of the course today, regularly maligned as being substandard; this was not the case today as they were in good condition. The rest of the course was pretty much as expected, fairways were ok but the bunkers were not.
Recently it would be unusual if Steve Downes didn’t appear somewhere in the winners circle, today he was top of the heap with a score of thirty-six points and looks a shoe-in for golfer of the month as his main rival, Jimmy Carr has lost form recently and probably has too much groynd to make up.. Alan Howard had a solid round of thirty-five points taking second place with Mike Milland edging out Hubert Stiefenhofer on countback for third place. All the near pins were taken as listed..
Murray Greig created some kind of record for lost balls, he had one of those days where he couldn’t control his drives and sprayed the ball all over the place.
Wednesday, December 25th
Khao Kheow B & C Yellow tees
1st Keith Norman (21) 36 points
2nd Hubert Stiefenhofer (16) 33 points
3rd Alan Howard (20) 33 points
Near pins Alan Howard, Les Humphreys, & Steve Downes.
Christmas Day golf was not on everybody’s menu so a low turnout for the game at Khao where we were allocated the B & C nines. The course was in reasonable condition, the greens were perhaps the fastest we have seen for a long time, the fairways were cut very tight which is not going to help in the hot sun, they were very dry and would benefit from some soaking rain.
The first group without rushing had a very quick round in three and a half hours, not so the second group which took an hour longer.
The Bristol Bears number one supporter Keith Norman took first place with a solid thirty-six points. Hubert Stiefenhofer who lost a countback on Monday reversed the tables today taking second place from Alan Howard. In his first game back Les Humphreys got a near pin as did Alan Howard and Steve Downes. one of the rare occasions lately when Steve was not in the winners circle.
Friday December 27th
Hermes Golf Course
1st Jay Babin (33) 41 points
2nd Rob Folland (15) 41 points
3rd Dave Ashman (27) 39 points
4th Hubert Stiefenhofer (16) 39 points
5th Keith Norman (21) 39 points
6th Uwe Jurgensen (30) 38 points
Near pins Murray Greig, Paul Smith, Geoff Williams, Dave Ashman.
A course that was once unpopular is suddenly the flavour of the month with a field of twenty-nine for today’s game. Having played there twice in recent weeks the general consensus is that the modifications which have been made to the course have not improved it in any meaningful way, in fact the changes to a par five twelfth have only made it worse, certainly more difficult. As has been the case for ever the fairways were very nice and the greens even paced.
Whilst the scoring today was excellent it did not reach the lofty heights of our previous visit when forty-five was top score. Jay Babin had a very enjoyable day taking first place on countback from Rob Folland. A threeway countback to settle the next three places with Uwe Jurgensen rounding out the winners list in sixth place with a very respectable thirty-eight points.Near pins were as listed. A couple of special prizes for longest putt on the ninth and eighteenth greens generously donated by Again Bar on Soi Lengkee were won by Les Humphreys and Murray Greig.
Unless we can negotiate a better deal at Hermes that will have been our last game there until low season. Bil Richardson is doing a sterling job under difficult circumstances organising courses that are good to play and within a reasonable pricing structure. It’s an impossible job trying to meet everybody’s needs within the constraints we have imposed on him.
Another issue we are looking at is to impose a twenty-four notice of intent to play in order to relieve the burden on the organiser in the mornings, people rocking up fifteen minutes before departure impose undue pressure to organise groups and transport in such a narrow timeframe.
Keith Norman, winner at Khao Kheow.
Jay Babin, winner at Hermes.