The Growling Swan 24/7
Thursday, 24th July – Burapha – Stableford
Toddy, Ken & The Colonel Burn At Burapha!
It was time for our monthly visit to the classy Burapha Golf Course to take advantage of their special Sports Day rate and it’s popularity showed as we had an excellent field of 28 signed up to play. As we assembled at The Growling Swan prior to departure there were many welcomes handed out including Paul Sharples back from Oman for some R & R, Glen Henriksen also on R & R from his work at Barrow Island off the coast of Western Australia, Andrew Purdie from Brisbane, Neil Skilton from his travels and James Artura from Massachusetts, New York. It was sadly time to bade farewell to Bent Agerbo who is returning to Denmark on the weekend after his 3 week bi-annual trip to Pattaya. Everyone was on time so our 2 mini vans departed the GS 3 minutes ahead of schedule at 8.27 am and after just 30 minutes we arrived at the golf course to find that it was not overly busy. After a leisurely check in we presented ourselves to the Starter who informed us that we would be playing the A & B nines and would be able to tee off somewhat ahead of schedule. We were soon called to the A1 tee and our first four ball got away 16 minutes before our booked tee time of 10.06 am. The weather was great, not too hot with a nice breeze and the golf course was in great shape as ever with lush fairways and beautifully prepared greens. There were groups ahead of us but we never really caught them up and our first nine took just one hour and fifty minutes. The good pace continued through the second nine and we completed a very enjoyable round of golf with terrific company in three hours and fifty five minutes.
We had 3 Divisions, Division A for handicaps 0 to 12, Division B for golfers on handicaps of 13 to 21 & Division C for players on handicaps of 22 and over with three places in each Division. There were also rewards for nearest the pin on all the par threes and longest first putts on the A9 & B9 greens.
Martin “Toddy” Todd was the winner in A Division with 35 points, 1 point ahead of the consistent John Pierrel in second place and Neil Skilton finished third with 32 points. There was some tremendous scoring in B Division with veteran Ken Hole winning on 44 points, just 1 point ahead of Bent Agerbo in second spot and Bob Akapita was third with 34 points. In Division C it was Alan “Colonel” Sanders who took out first place with a fine 38 points and with 2 golfers on 35 points a count back was required which resulted in Tom “TC” Cotton (17 point back nine) finishing second from Geri Crilly (16 point back nine) in third spot.
Results for Burapha:
Division A – 0 to 12
1st –Martin Todd (8) – 35 points
2nd – John Pierrel (11) – 34 points
3rd – Neil Skilton (7) – 32 points
Division B – 13 to 21
1st – Ken Hole (18) – 44 points
2nd – Bent Agerbo (20) – 43 points
3rd – Bob Akapita (16) – 34 points
Division C – 22 and over
1st – Alan Sanders (26) – 38 points
2nd – Tom Cotton (23) – 35 points
3rd – Geri Crilly (26) – 35 points
NTP’s
A3 – Bent Agerbo
A6 – Bill Steinman
B3 – Bob Akapita
B8 – James Artura
LFP’s
A9 – Tom Cotton
B9 – Martin Todd
The Growling Swan NAGA Award, (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Niall Stuart and he accepted the award like the good sport that he is and wore the red cap for a while in the bar afterwards. Russell then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers. Back at the bar the beer was flowing and we were reminded time and time again of Russell Calcutt’s birdie on the par 3 B3 but as it was a very rare occasion for Russell we did “cut him some slack”. It had been yet another great day on a terrific course with top quality company.
Growling Swan Golf, the home of friendly golf in Pattaya welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 am with transport departing at 8.30 am. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn@gmail.com
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00am on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454 005.