The Outback Golf Bar
Another enjoyable Outback golf tour of Kanchanaburi came to a conclusion last weekend, and as always, a great time was had by all.
Playing Nikanti on Day 1 was hard to beat, as this is simply a great course layout. Winner on day one was the always lovely On Phisetrit, scoring 40 points with a magnificent swing and solid putting. It does help being a caddy and able to read lines better than the rest of us mere mortals! Paul Smith played fantastic golf also to finish level par on 72 with 38 points, and Andre Coetzee was surprised to find himself in third place.
Day 2 was at Grand Prix and many agree that this course is one of the best in Thailand. It simply has a magnificent layout, views and atmosphere about it and what a magic day it was for Dave Stockman, scoring a fantastic 71 gross to even beat Paul Smith off the stick and also bagging 44 points on top. Second, and losing by only a point was Fynn Csizmadia who is a very good player on any day. Simply making a small change with his club position in his hand set Fynn up for a great tournament going forward and it just shows how something small in golf can make such a big difference. Third place was Steve Mann who scored a great round of 40 points.
Keeping in mind that our away tournaments does cater for hcp adjustments for the winners and losers from the previous day’s round, Stefan Hoge had a rough two first days with his handicap going up on both the first two rounds, and then – wham, on Day 3 everything clicked and he came in with a magnificent 46 points. In second place with a great 41 points was Fred Ward who narrowly beat David Atkinson on count-back.
On Phisetrit was the clubhouse leader after 3 rounds, with Paul Smith and Dave Stockman breathing down each other’s necks for 2nd and 3rd place, all in close contention. But as things go in golf, a lot of pressure at the top group does have an effect on people, and how things changed on Day 4 at Royal Ratchaburi. Andrew Makara, who finished in last place the day before, doubled his previous round’s score to finish with 44 points to win the day. After having two terrible rounds at Grand Prix, a good bit of luck (what else) helped Andre Coetzee return a very good 77 gross, giving him 42 points to finish 2nd. Steve Mann pulled off another great performance to finish on 41 points in 3rd place.
On the overall positions, there were a total of 22 two’s over the four days, a testament to the quality of players over the last four days. Paul Smith was undoubtedly the player of the tournament and despite not winning he ended up only 1 over gross after 4 days, which is simply outstanding consistency. Paul averaged above 36 points a day and finished on 146 in third place overall. Fynn Csizmadia’s return to form after the setup change he made after day 1, propelled him 1 point ahead of Paul to finish on a fantastic 147. But Kim Danboise, a man that never finished in the top 3 on any day, had the best consistency with 31, 40, 38 and 40 points over the four days to push his score to 149 with an average of just more than 37 points.
