Monday, November 25th
Plutaluang S & E
1st Steve Downes (7) 38 points
2nd Sean Murphy (18) 36 points
3rd Rob Folland (16) 36 points
4th Witt Mann (13) 36 points
5th Billy Shepley (6) 35 points
Near pins Dave Ashman, & Steve Downes X 3
Our second visit to the Navy course within a week, this time to play the South and East nines and what a difference we found. Today’s nines were not nearly as good as last Wednesday when we played North and West. Fairways had several bare patches and the greens were a bit bumpy and sandy in places. Despite the car parks being full we were able to tee off early and the lead groups finished in a very timely fashion. For some reason the third group lost contact with the second allowing another group to slip in between and hold up everyone behind them, a timely lesson to keep up with the group in front of you.
In a rich vein of form lately and charging up the ladder in his quest for his first golfer of the month trophy Steve Downes took first place with an excellent thirty-eight points which by all accounts could have been even better. A three way tie followed with Sean Murphy taking second on countback from Rob Folland in third and Witt Mann in fourth. Witt was not happy with himself having missed a short put on the last which would have made him second instead of fourth, small margins sometimes make a big difference.
Just to confirm what good shape his game is in, Steve Downes took three near pins, the other went to Dave Ashman.
Wednesday, November 27th
Treasure Hill
1st John Hughes ( 25 ) 33 points
2nd Jimmy Carr (22) 33 points
3rd Steve Downes (7) 32 points
4th Jack Best (18) 32 points
5th Brendan Harnett (19) 32 points
Near pins Witt Mann, Hubert Stiefenhofer, Robby Watts, & Steve Downes.
A field of twenty-two for the mid-week game at Treasure Hill where we found a virtually empty course, remarkable for high season. Having spent much time organising groups into walkers and carts we found to our great surprise that walking was not an option, one can only imagine the looks of surprise on the faces of those that had to stump up the additional six-hundred baht for a cart they didn’t require. The high season price gouge is now in full swing
As the course was so quiet we were able to tee off immediately on arrival and finish in a very good time.
People seem to finally get the need to be ready when it’s their turn to play, we had no problem today with stragglers.
It’s a toss-up between Treasure Hill and Mountain Shadow as to which is the more difficult, suffice to say that scoring is always below par on both courses as it was again today at Treasure Hill, gone are the days when Robby Watts never had under thirty-six at this course. The wily old fox, John Hughes took the honours today on countback from another old fox Jimmy Carr, both on thirty-three. A three-way countback to decide the other placings as listed. Hard luck stories were abundant today, mostly on the greens which were very slick and with some evil slopes which most underestimated, forgetting the golden rule, if you are going to miss then miss on the high side of the hole. Competition for near pins was again very keen with Steve Downes again in the frame, lately he has never missed having snared three on Monday, Witt Mann, Robby Watts and Hubert Stiefenhofer took the other three.
Friday, November 29th
Pleasant Valley
1st Rob Folland (16) 37 points
2nd Pat Ryan (14) 33 points
3rd Takeshi Hakozaki (16) 31 points
4th Uwe Jurgensen (30) 31 points
Near pins Michael Brett, Frank Dartford, & Pat Ryan.
Pleasant Valley was the venue for the last game of November where for some peculiar reason we had a smaller field than normal for this time of year, The course was in good condition but a strong breeze made for tricky conditions. The day was not helped by a very slow society out ahead of us from the start and there was the resultant frustration, some people simply can hold their concentration when the game is continually being held up.
Normally a high scoring course only Rob Folland was able to reach the standard today with a fine round of thirty-seven to take first place, a good score in the conditions. Pat Ryan took second place on thirty-three with Takeshi Hakozaki taking third on countback from Uwe Jurgensen. Near pins weree as listed.
As usual on the last game of the month it was time to identify the golfer of the month. Anders Nielsen was well in contention early but only stayed for half the month so he dropped off. Steve Downes was very steady all month and looked a real threat going into the closing rounds, however he had too much ground to make up leaving it to Michael Brett to take the honours for the third month in a row and four from the last five months, cries of “bring back Kob Glover” were heard around the bar.
John Hughes, winner at Treasure Hill.
Golfer of the month, Michael Brett.