Monday January 12th
1st Les Cobban (12) 42 points
2nd Hubert Stiefenhofer (19) 37 points
3rd Stuart Tinkler (20) 36 points
4th Keith Norman (18) 36 points
Near pins Ian Flannigan, Max Reid, Hubert Stiefenhofer, & Sam Gershon, a hole in one.
The first game of the week was played at Pleasant Valley in hot conditions but a cool breeze made it a bit more tolerable. A late tee time was made worse with an overbooked course which resulted in a further delay in our tee time and a slow round. The course was in good condition as usual. Because of the high water table it does not deteriorate like many courses this time of the year.
Scoring was of a high standard today, none better than Les Cobban who won by a country mile with forty-two points. Hubert Stiefenhofer took second place with a steady round of thirty-seven points. A countback to decide the final placings with Stuart Tinkler shading it from Keith Norman. All the near pins were taken with the first hole in one of the year going to Sam Gershon, fresh off the plane from Hawaii. Sometimes we wait a long time for a hole in one, today’s was just a few weeks from the last one by Rob Folland, the other three near pins went to Ian Flannigan, Hubert Stiefenhofer & Max Reid. We had a retiree injured on the fifteenth when Dave Galvin in frustration played a shot he shouldn’t have and hit a tree stump injuring an arm, one of the more unfortunate results of frustration on the course.
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Wednesday 14th
Plutaluang North & West
1st Torben Veelsgaard (16) 35 points
2nd Michael Brett (17) 35 points
3rd Alan Howard (19) 34 points
4th Phil Mashiter (6) 34 points
Near pins Phil Mashiter, Michael Brett, & Torben Veelsgaard X 2.
A difficult day at Thai Navy for the mid-week game. The North & West nines are holding up well despite a lack of rain, for some reason the greens were very bumpy even though they looked ok. A bit of wind didn’t help for the most part.
Scoring was only modest even though it was tight for places. With a superior back nine Thorben Vellsgaard took first place from Michael Brett on countback. In his first game of this tour he also managed two near pins. A countback also to decide third and fourth with the ever consistent Alan Howard taking it from Phil Mashiter. The remaining nearest pins went to Phil Mashiter and Michael Brett. Lucky shot of the day went to Ian Flannigan who on the lighthouse hole sliced his tee shot on to the rocks on the right side of the green, his ball heading straight for the water hit a rock and miraculously did a one hundred and eighty degrees and landed back on the green, Ian’s luck continued throughout the front nine where he scored twenty points, thereafter his luck ran out and he finished out of the frame.
Friday, January 16th
Mountain Shadow
Medal
1st Colin Greig (16) Net 71
2nd Alan Howard (19) Net 74
3rd Davy Galvin (33) Net 75
4th Robby Watts (24) Net 76
5th Richard Baldotto (22) Net 77.
Near pins, Bil Richardson, Steve Elles, Hubert Stiefenhofer, & Ken Smith.
Pandemonium at Mountain Shadow today for our last game of the week. We hadn’t allowed sufficient time to get from the bar to the course so we arrived dead on time as we thought, unfortunately the course had us scheduled to tee off fifteen minutes earlier so a panic to get away quickly as two minibuses arrived at the same time making matters worse. It seems like Mountain Shadow and Crystal Bay are incapable of getting our bookings right, even to the extent that we book one course and they have us playing at the other, perhaps one day they will get it correct.
The first medal round of the month and what a difficult course on which to play medal as evident from some of the many low scores. The only one to shoot under his handicap was the winner, Colin Greig who is in very fine form this month. Another always in the winners circle was second placed Alan Howard with a net seventy-four. Finally we have some young blood at the Bunker in the form of Davy Galvin making a breakthrough visit to the winners circle, in third place with net seventy-five, no doubt we will see more of Davy in the future. Despite an up and down round Robby Watts managed to take fourth place with a net seventy-six, while Richard Baldotto got the better of Michael Brett on countback to claim fifth place.
For the second game of the week we had an early retiree, but this time not an injury, Rob Folland succumbed to something rare in Pattaya, a bit of over exuberance the night before.
Near pins are as listed. At this stage of the month there is a ding dong battle for golfer of the month between Colin Greig and Alan Howard, which one will it be or will someone from the pack make a late run? only time will tell.
First hole in one of the year to Sam Gershon.
Colin Greig, winner at Mountain Shadow
