Monday, June 9th
Khao Kheow A & B.
1st Dominique Pujol (28) 31 points
2nd Sam Gershon (19) 31 points
3rd Steve Downes (6) 31 points
Near pins Bob Innes, Bil Richardson, & Steve Downes.
A beautiful day for golf to start off the week at Khao Kheow where we were allocated the A & B nines. Goes without saying the course was in very nice condition as always, however we had none of the excitement of our last visit when Alan Sullivan got his first ever hole in one.
Scoring was particularly poor today with thirty-one being the top score, in fact four players achieved that number. In his first game of a two week visit Dominique Pujol took the honours on countback from Sam Gershon, also a one week flying visit, Steve Downes was also on thirty-one as was Alan Sullivan. Near pins went to Steve Downes as usual, Bil Richardson and Bob Innes.
As mentioned previously an away trip was suggested to either Royal Hills or Kabin Buri, economically Kabin Buri proved to be a much better deal than Royal Hills and so was chosen as the venue, as it turned out it was an easy decision. It looks like a decent roll up is anticipated, those intending to travel should make a reservation with Tony Robbins. If the numbers are even, the plan is to have a day of individual competition on the first day with a two ball on the second day, we rarely play anything other than individual so this could be a refreshing change.
Wednesday June 11th
Emerald
1st Witt Mann (14) 42 points
2nd Dominique Pujol (28) 37 points
3rd Sam Gershon (19) 36 points
4th John Sykes (13) 36 points
Near pins Alan Sullivan, John Sykes, & Witt Mann
A very sad day for the Bunker Boys playing their last game at Emerald, the course will be closed later this month, possibly as early as the end of the week. Much of the land has been sold for industrial development and residential housing. A revised nine hole course is planned where supposedly people can play twice for nine-hundred baht all in, one wonders about the merits of this option. This is a shame as the course as it exists is an excellent layout and with a bit of TLC and some different grasses could have been so much more. Also it was a course with fair pricing and a willingness to provide rain checks without protracted arguments, so much for the muted plan to build a new clubhouse and four new holes.
Today the course was much as we have come to expect but was surprisingly wet in places.
Had it not been for Witt Mann today’s result would have been the same as Monday, however Witt had daylight between himself and the rest with an outstanding round of forty two points. Unsurprisingly hole five was the one to miss out on a near pin, the other three were as listed.
Friday June 13th
Greenwood C & A.
1st Steve Downes (7) Net 71
2nd Craig Dows (8) Net 74
3rd Robbie Watts (12) Net 75
Near pins Les Cobban & Rob Folland
Greenwood was not at its best today it has to be said, normally in very fine shape it disappointed many today. Possibly because of recent rain, ground staff were reluctant to put mowers on the course so the grass was much higher than ideal, in particular the rough was brutal, almost unplayable. The greens were also unusually slow , both of which conspired to keep scores modest.
Steve Downes took pride of place at the top of the scoresheet with a net seventy-one. In a rare appearance Craig Dows took second place one ahead of Robbie Watts.
Remarkably in a field of fourteen only two near pins were taken going to Rob Folland and Les Cobban.
The game was played in overcast conditions until the closing holes when the last two groups got an almighty drenching, they were keen to blame the groups ahead of them for slow play, otherwise they would have been home free, yet another drawback of slow play, a topical subject even among the professional ranks, we still await a solution.
Dominique Pujol, winner at Khao Kheow.
Witt Mann, winner at Emerald.