PSC Golf from the Café Kronborg
Monday, May 21, Bangpakong – Stableford
Bangpakong Riverside Golf Club is one of our favorite venues and we had seventeen starters ready to play this enjoyable golf course. We assembled at Café Kronborg and it was terrific to welcome back Ronnie Ratte who is recovering from heart surgery.
Due to the longer than usual journey we departed the Kronny a couple of minutes earlier than our normal 0815 hrs departure time and Boon kept his foot down on Highway 7 which resulted in our arrival at the course just 65 minutes later. It did not appear too busy and sure enough as soon as we were ready our first group teed off 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 0950 hrs.
Gordon Clegg, The Admiral & Takeshi Hakozaki.
The weather was great, hot but with a fairly stiff breeze to cool things down & as usual the course was looking very good. A fair amount of work is being done resulting in the rough being not so “rough” which is making some of the fairways seem to be somewhat wider. The greens appeared to be slower than usual but still very good to putt on and whilst the stableford scores were not huge it was apparent that a few golfers found the layout to their liking.
With no-one ahead of us we proceeded at a cracking pace and with just the one 10 minute drink break we were able to complete our full round in the excellent time of four hours & ten minutes.
There were 2 flights on the day plus rewards for nearest the pin on the four par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens, all kindly donated by Walter Baechli. Many thanks to Walter for his generosity.
As mentioned previously there were some good scores and Takeshi Hakozaki won the A Flight with 40 points, 3 points ahead of Mike Allidi (20 point back nine) whose 73 gross enabled him to secure second place on a count back from Frank Donnelly (18 point back nine) in third place. A three-way count back for fourth place saw Walter Baechli (21 point back nine) edge out your writer (19 point back nine) and Alain Taddei (16 point back nine) with all three having 36 points.
Another 40 point haul saw Gordon Clegg victorious in B Flight, 2 points ahead of Dave (The Admiral) Richardson in second spot and Bo Cardwell third with 36 points. In yet another count back on 35 points Henry Wong (19 point back nine) shaded out the brave Ronnie Ratte (16 point back nine).
A Flight (0-19)
1st Takeshi Hakozaki (13) 40pts
2nd Mike Allidi (2) 37pts
3rd Frank Donnelly (19) 37pts
4th Walter Baechli (15) 36pts
B Flight (20+)
1st Gordon Clegg (28) 40pts
2nd Dave Richardson (27) 38pts
3rd Bo Cardwell (28) 36pts
4th Henry Wong (24) 35pts
Near Pins: 4th – Bo Cardwell; 7th – Mike Allidi; 13th – Takeshi Hakozaki; 16th – Mike Allidi
Long Putts: 9th – Mike Allidi; 18th – Lionel Rowles
The Compass Cap (awarded for worst score on the day) was won by Lionel Rowles and in Hunter’s absence big Ken (let’s hear it for) Bernek paraded Deefa the Dog who once more collected many donations to charity from the ever generous Kronny crew.
Thursday, May 24, Khao Kheow A & B – Stableford
Just fifteen golfers were signed up for our long awaited return to Khao Kheow as many of our annual visitors are now returning to their homelands. We did however welcome one regular visitor, Paul Sharples who is once more here from Oman on one of his many visits to Pattaya. Sadly though we were saying farewell to Gordon Clegg, returning to his work in Saudi Arabia and Marie & Lionel Rowles who are off back to Sydney Australia after enjoying another good golfing holiday here.
Dave Richardson, Deefa the Dog & Mike Gosden.
Departing the Kronny a couple of minutes early at 0812 hrs it was just a 43 minute drive to the course where there was a fair bit of activity. The weather was fine although hot & humid with a bit of a breeze and our first group, a three-ball got away 12 minutes before our scheduled tee time of 1000 hrs.
We have had mixed reports about the course of late but to us it seemed very close to the high standard that we are used to at K.K. There were a few bare patches on some fairways and the greens were perhaps a touch slower than normal but all in all they were firm and true and a pleasure to putt on.
We proceeded at a very good pace, completing the A nine in just a shade over two hours and stopping for a ten minute drink break on B nine we finished the round in four hours & ten minutes.
There were 2 flights on the day with A Flight being for handicaps 0 to 19 and B Flight for handicaps of 20 and over.
There were mixed performances on the day with some very good scores & some very ordinary ones. The winner of A Flight for the second Thursday in a row was Aussie Mike Gosden with a fine 41 points and Takeshi Hakozaki finished second with 36 points, 1 ahead of Mike Allidi in third spot.
B Flight was well won by Dave “The Admiral” Richardson with a very good 42 points (say bye bye to the 27 handicap Dave) and Mike Winfield was second with 39 points. The announcement of third place winner Dick Braimbridge brought the house down as he has just about claimed permanent possession of the Compass Cap of late but his 35 points on this day was great to see.
A Flight (0-19)
1st Mike Gosden (12) 41pts
2nd Takeshi Hakozaki (12) 36pts
3rd Mike Allidi (2) 35pts
B Flight (20+)
1st Dave Richardson (27) 42pts
2nd Mike Winfield (20) 39pts
3rd Dick Braimbridge (36) 35pts
The Compass Cap (awarded for worst score on the day) was won by departee Lionel Rowles and Hunter paraded Deefa the Dog who once more collected many donations to charity from the ever generous Kronny crew.
