The 15th Pattaya AmAm Golf Tournament
Wednesday, March 9, Greenwood – Stableford
1st Simon Payne (0), Gary Constable (2), Dave Clark (14), Mike McNaney (14), 83pts
2nd Brian Libbey (7), Yasuo Suzuki (8), Trevor Schirmer (11), Stephen Lewis (14) 80pts
3rd Chris Voller (4), Mikael Andersson (8), Steve Jones (9), Rung Paungsal (11) 78pts
4th Russell Exley (6), Phil Groves (8), Don Scott (8), Stephen Beard (17) 77pts
5th Al Keith (4), Grant Cadell (12), Rod Howett (18), Roar Berger (20) 76pts
Near Pins: (A2) Tom Byrne; (A6) Russell Exley; (C3) Mike McNaney; (C6) Al Keith
Technical Prizes: (A8) Yasuo Suzuki; (C2) Simon Payne; (C7) Dave Clark; (C9) Evan Millar
2’s: Mikael Andersson, Steve Jones, Gary Constable, Joe McArdle
The fifteenth Pattaya AmAm, held for the first time over the testing A and C courses at Greenwood, proved to be a very well supported and much appreciated event by those that took part.
The 2011 winning AmAm team: Simon Payne, Gary Constable, Dave Clark and Mike McNaney.
The format as usual was Stableford scoring with handicaps rounded to the nearest whole number after making a deduction of 25 %, allowing two team member’s scores to count on each hole without restriction on the number of times a player’s score could be counted.
The conditions for the day were very difficult following a lot of rain during the previous days leading up to the competition, and with ‘lift and place’ not the rule on the day it put a premium on long carries from the tees.
A strong wind that strangely seemed to be against on almost every hole added to the player’s difficulties and it was not surprising that the end results were well below the normally expected level.
The visiting team from Ras Al Khaymer showed the value of long and straight, as their top players Simon and Gary made a hard day look somewhat easy on many of the holes, enabling the team to almost stroll home three clear of the rest of the field.
The second placed team led by the inform Brian Libbey and well supported by Yasuo Suzuki, Trevor Schirmer and Stephen Lewis, held off a strong challenge from the third team ably led by Chris Voller and Mikael Andersson.
Russell Exley’s team failed to maintain their momentum through the closing holes to slip to fourth as Al Keith’s team took fifth just another single point behind them.
Back at The Haven Stephen Beard announced the winners as Russell Exley presented the trophies having thanked everyone that had assisted in producing another successful team event, including the catering staff who once again rounded off the day with a great buffet followed by quite a few wet ones that went on late into the night.
