The Outback Bar Golf Society
Monday, Nov. 21, Burapha – Stableford
With the high season kicking in, it is good to see some return visitors joining us, some of them coming only once a year and enjoying the benefit of the Outback fetching them right from their hotels to join us for a fun day out.
Judging by the scores our visiting Japanese friends had a hard time keeping up with the field today, with Kazuo performing by far the best with a 4th place. Just behind Kazuo was Guy Lindsay Watson who also joined us for the first time, finishing 5th. In 3rd place, Bob Lindborg had another good round with 37 points while Jim Black, joining us on his annual leave, scored a solid 38 points for second. But Steve Plant took the win ahead of the field with a great 40 points.
Jim Black had the only ‘2’ of the day, collecting a healthy ransom from the field.
Tuesday, Nov. 22, Pattana – Matchplay
We got together today with the German Swiss Golf Society for our first scheduled matchplay tournament of the season, with 6 teams from each society competing against one another. The format of this event was a four-ball matchplay where two players of each team compete against their opposite opponents. Thanks to Ruediger Mergemeier and the support of his society to make this a great day out.
Pattana is in beautiful condition at the moment, the greens were fast and true and the competition fierce with 4 out of the 6 matches going to the last hole to decide a winner. In the end, the strength and determination of our gutsy Outback players persevered and we won the tournament 4½ against 1½.
Wednesday, Nov. 23, Bangpra – Stableford
A bit of a rude shock for our group today, turning up and realising that Bangpra was not going to honour the agreed green-fee rate. With high season kicking in, many of the golf clubs seems to be doing what they do best around this time of year, hiking prices from what was discussed with them earlier. Hopefully things will settle down shortly with more acceptable rates being offered.
Feedback from our group suggested that the course is in pretty good condition, although the greens are not the lighting fast variety we previously experienced here before.
In 4th place this week, playing from the silver tees was Don Lehmer with 36 points. Sugar Ray Robertson had a very good 37 points from his 9 handicap for third while Thierry Petrement just lost out on count back to Reg McKay for top spot, both players finishing on 38 points.
There were two ‘2’s today, coming from Peter le Noury (a superb eagle two on hole-13) and David Atkinson.
Friday, Nov. 25, Green Valley – Stableford
With a large field playing Green Valley this week the prizes were split into two divisions, with Division A up to 16 handicap, and Division B from 17 handicap onwards.
It was a high scoring day with beautiful weather and the course set up reasonably easy, with most pins well accessible. Even 38 points was not enough to secure a prize in the B division, which just goes to show.
In 4th place in Division B, Bob Lindborg got into the prizes for the second time in a week with a solid 39 points. Bruce McAdam beat Bob on count back to finish in 3rd place, with Eddie Beilby recording yet another high scoring round of 40 points, but only good enough to earn him 2nd place. Bill Peach had a tremendous round from the silver tees where his 23 points on the back nine was finally enough to give him a good win on count back over Eddie.
In the A division, 4th place went to Steve Mann with 38 points, third to Daryl Ottaway with a fine 39 points and in second placeKim Danboise finally had the good round with a great 40 points. Our flight winner, with the best score of the day was Peter le Noury with 41 points.
We had several ‘2’s today, with Greg Jones, John Stafford, and Maurice Copan recording one each.
