The Golf Club weekly review
Monday, April 24, Green Valley (white tees) – Stableford
1st Gary Emmett (16) 39pts
T2nd Peter LeNoury (14) 36pts
T2nd Aki Yamamoto (21) 36pts
First off, some breaking news about a new course… well, sort of. The old Great Lakes – Rayong C.C. has now reopened after a year’s closure and rebranded King’s Naga. Not on our May schedule, we will sneak out there for a quick round and report on the changes in the next few weeks. I sure hope we have some good news, ‘cause it’s such a short drive!
We are still getting good numbers and the turnout today gave us 4 groups on the first tee. Weather has been a bit dodgy of late, but today was OK, the threats of rain never materialised.
Peter (The Machine) LeNoury can’t wait to get back to Guernsey and put the pedal to the metal of his new Audi, but that won’t be for another 2 weeks. Till then he is stuck with us, and today took second place with Aki Yamomoto at 36.
Chicken dinner went to Gary Emmett who had a very boring round of consistent golf shots with 19 on the front and 20 on the back, which, according to my calculations adds up to a whopping 39 on the Richter Scale.
Our buddy, newlywed Freddy Birch, claimed a near pin but alas, ended with a mere par.
Tuesday, April 25, Phoenix Gold (white tees) – Monthly Medal
1st Aki Yamamoto (21) net 69
2nd Graham Eldridge (16) net 69
3rd Kenny Aihara (6) net 70
Mountain and Ocean were the links of choice today and we were all quite happy to avoid Lakes. Sorry, but that’s the way it is and the redesign has not been met with the approval of the people’s court.
What we played was in great nick and all was good at check-in this time as we have found that Tuesday’s are 1,550 all in through the summer. That is good value for this course, and the British pound is even hitting 44.5.
Kenny could only manage third place today but also came through with a near pin to help our Caddy Smile project.
It was a showdown with Graham Eldridge and Aki Yamomoto for the Medal honours and it came to a countback. Sorry Graham, it was not your turn this April and Aki Yamomoto took our Antigua shirt back to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Thursday, April 27, Pattavia (white tees) – Stableford
1st Sean Hastings (18) 36pts
T2nd Phil Smedley (13) 35pts
T2nd Frank Tordeur (20) 35pts
What great condition Pattavia was today, the lads were raving about how lush and green it was and the greens were actually fair today. You cannot fault the layout, and with hot but acceptable weather (if you had a cart) the round was just about perfect.
We had two blokes on 35 today with the names Frank Tordeur and Phil Smedley. They had to split the dosh for second for all their efforts walking through this sweltering heat.
Sean Hastings has spent a lot of time skiing Colorado and California much like myself, so we are from the same planet, which is much like your Earth. I wish I was more laid back like Sean is, because that attitude does not let anything fluster you on the golf course and today he waltzed off as the 36 point winner. Mr. Hastings also danced his way to the Caddy Smile near pin. Nice shootin!
Friday, April 28, Khao Kheow A & B – Stableford
1st Frank Tordeur (20) 39pts
T2nd Phil Smedley (13) 33pts
T2nd Mark Wood (10) 33pts
Once again, the boys getting off the bus had nothing but rave reviews. Khao Kheow was in perfect condition as usual and the crew here has done an excellent job all year. We are so quick to complain when things are bad (and rightly so) but this course has a great track record of being in beautiful condition.
Four groups turned up for the comp, which was a nice number for Capt. Phil to work with. We were assigned the A & B tracks of this lovely Pete Dye course and that seemed to suit our Belgian Bud Frank Tordeur just fine. Frank literally blew away the field with a six stroke win and we are talking about guys who have played this place 100 times.
Thirty-three points was all Capt. Phil and Mark Wood could muster from 18 of Khao Kheow’s finest holes so let’s not even look at what the rest had on their card. At least Phil had some consolation by taking the near pin, albeit from 28 feet away that he was just happy to 3 putt for par.
