IPGC Golf from The Haven
Monday, Sept. 26, Greenwood – Stableford
CSS 76 NC
1st Mike Hill (20) 30pts
2nd Terry Hodgkiss (26) 23pts
3rd John Carlin (18) 22pts
4th Markku Tynell (21) 21pts
5th Leo Adam (24) 20pts
With the rain clouds continuing to encircle the Pattaya area the prospects for a return to dry-weather golf appeared to have somewhat dimmed as the group set out for the farthest of the courses on the schedule.
So a smaller than usual group set off, under overcast but dry skies, over an almost deserted course where the two most difficult of the three nines were in play for the day. Unfortunately the rain did not stay away for too long, leaving just five finishers who were led in by Mike Hill. Six over handicap may not seem to be that good but it was a clear seven better than the next best could muster and owed as much to tenacity as skill.
Terry Hodgkiss was the next in line to hand in a very wet and bedraggled score card for second place, one ahead of John Carling who described the going as heavy and slow. Markku Tynell took fourth, with Leo Adam making his first appearance on the podium in fifth as the final finisher.
There were no 2s in either of the divisions.
Wednesday, Sept. 28, Khao Kheow B & C (yellow tees) – Stableford
CSS 74
1st Rusty Barfield (6) 35pts
2nd Larry Gibb (19) 33pts
3rd Mike Hill (20) 32pts
4th Frank Harrington (6) 32pts
5th John Carlin (18) 29pts
6th John Tallett (24) 29pts
7th Markku Tynell (21) 29pts
Clear skies all day was the forecast, as the group set off for a course that is a tough enough test in the best of conditions. Overnight rain had left the course long and arduous but apart from the dampness it was in as good a condition as could be expected, with the greens especially worthy of good comment.
Rusty Barfield returned to the group to win after completing an excellent round that got better as it progressed as he took 19 from the harder of the two halves to finish two ahead of Larry Gibb.
Mike Hill slipped into third place after winning a count back over Frank Harrington with a better 17 to 16. John Carlin then won a three-way count back for fifth, edging sixth placed John Tallett and seventh Markku Tynell as they recorded 17, 15 and 13 respectively.
There were no 2s in the first division but Phil Cass and Mike Hill shared the second division rollover pool with one each on the island B8 hole.
Friday, Sept. 30, Phoenix (Lakes & Ocean) – Medal
Division 1
(Blue tees)
CSS 77 NC
1st Rusty Barfield (6) net 77
2nd Mark Lang (4) net 80
Division 2
CSS 74
1st Vincent Gras (17) net 73
2nd Terry Hodgkiss (26) net 75
3rd Benny Hansen (27) net 75
Once again the monthly medals were held at the redesigned Phoenix Gold course where the Lakes and Ocean nines were in play and the conditions were similar to the other two events earlier in the week, being heavy, with little to no run in the fairways and heavy wet grass in the rough. The greens however showed some improvement from the previous visits, being a lot more receptive.
So with scoring extremely difficult, especially for the first division who were playing from the blue tees as usual, the scores were once again generally well over handicap levels.
Rusty Barfield took his first monthly medal ahead of Mark Lang, as the rest of the division failed to return a card and underlined the difficulty of the day. Mark Lang’s card had commendably just two sixes included but too many fives had spoiled his chance of his first medal for the year, but he did become the eighteenth player in the first division to qualify for the end of year Gold and Silver playoffs.
Vincent Gras was another to gain his place in the end of year competition as he took the second division medal with an excellent one over handicap return, this following a very productive first day in Pattaya the previous evening which had started early and required a very early bedtime.
Terry Hodgkiss won a count back for second place with a better 34 to 37.5 to deny Benny Hansen a chance of an appearance in the finals.
Mark Lang cleaned out the rollover pool in the first division 2s while Shuichi Kodak started a new holiday fund with his sole effort on the second division.
