IPGC July Monthly Medals
Wednesday, July 4 – Phoenix G.C.
CSS 72
Division 1 (0–12)
Stroke Play
1st Chris Voller (8) net 72
2nd Anders Hansson (9) net 72
3rd Yasuo Suzuki (12) net 73
4th Jon Batty (8) net 74
5th Al Keith (5) net 74
Division 2 (13+)
Stableford
1st Robbie Taylor (13) 44pts
2nd Bruce Gardner (22) 41pts
3rd Benny Hansen (25) 40pts
4th Josef Frick (23) 39pts
5th Shuichi Kodaka (17) 37pts
6th Joe Niisato (13) 37pts
2’s: Anders Hansson, Robbie Taylor, Bruce Gardner, Jon Batty
With many of the competitors signed up for the Baan Jing Jai Summer Scramble to be held over the same courses on the following Friday, it was a better than expected turnout as players hoped to get a bit of course knowledge from an extra round.
The conditions were ideal for golf with an overcast sky that threatened rain but stayed dry throughout the day and a slight wind from the west helping to cool the worst of the humidity. Play set off at a brisk pace without the usual IPGC starter but the usual Phoenix man did his customary good job and the play over the Mountain and Ocean Courses was at a very good pace, with the last group taking just over four hours to complete the eighteen.
The first division was led in by Chris Voller, who had to win a count back over Anders Hansson to claim his first IPGC medal, which he did with a better net 34 against 36.5 after covering the inward half on two over gross even with an ugly double bogey on the par 3 Ocean 7. He had done enough however as Anders slipped slightly, also taking a double on the seventeenth hole when a bogey would have won the day.
Yasuo Suzuki, who was preparing to return to Japan for a couple of months may well have been thinking of that when playing the first as he completely lost the plot, taking a quintuple bogey and was pleased to see the last of the hole with a nine. Not a very auspicious start to a medal round, but with typical stoical application he played the next seventeen at four under handicap to finish in third place.
The second division was a scoring festival with the top six players all bettering their handicaps with the Medal winner Robbie Taylor having his best round in Thailand, in fact only ever playing under 85 gross on a couple of occasions very recently. But on this day a gross 77 proved to be the winning number although the margin of victory was not as great as he may have expected when he signed the card having played the back nine at one under gross.
Bruce Gardner, no doubt having thought he may have well been the winner, had to settle for second place at five under handicap after he had also finished very strongly with a five under handicap closing nine which included a scratch hole in the middle and a one pointer on the last but he had also three four pointers and two three pointers.
Benny Hansen took third place after he had had equaled his lifetime best score but sadly finished with a no score hole which cost him second spot.
Josef Frick was almost in contention but a miscalculation in the points score lowered him into fourth place ahead of a count back for fifth which Shuichi Kodak won with a better 21 to 17 over Joe Niisato.
After the golf the players returned to The Haven, which was the month’s venue for the prize giving, where they were provide with a superb buffet prior to the prize presentations which were made by Emcee Stephen Beard and presented by Russell Exley as the organiser of the day.
Following the presentations Russell Oversaw the now standard luck draw when everyone attending won a prize.
