PSC golf from the Growling Swan
Monday, Feb. 11, Mt. Shadow –Stableford
Twenty four golfers gathered at the Growling Swan to take on the short but challenging Mountain Shadow course. Hitting from the white markers the starter sent us on our way at 0950 hours and the first group finished in four hours and twenty minutes.
The course was in excellent condition and the greens as usual tested the player’s ability to read them however they putted truly. The weather was cloudy with a cooling breeze on the first nine but it abated on the flipside (the breeze not the weather).
Sandy Leiper, Mike Gosden, Peter Grey & Ken Blinco.
Martin Todd commented that this is his favourite course as the greens slope towards the bar. Graham Buckingham, who always sends us to the lexicon, said to Mike Gosden on the sixteenth tee, “Where are the onions?” Mike asked “Why?” upon which Graham responded, “To go with the tripe you’re playing”. Sadly Graham was correct.
The track is very testing and this was born out by the scores being lower than the nether regions on a sausage dog.
We welcomed Tony Scambler from Pattaya and Per Aschan from Sweden.
In the A grade Scot Eaton with thirty seven points showed the way from Tony Scambler on thirty six. Don Richardson came in third with thirty five points whilst Per Aschan on thirty four rounded out the podium.
In the B grade Kae with thirty six points showed the way from Brad Todd with thirty five. An interesting statistic was that Kae and Brad both had twenty two points on the back nine. In third spot was Ed Stewart on thirty four whilst Jayson Schembri on thirty two finished fourth.
A Flight (0–17)
1st Scot Eaton (5) 37pts
2nd Tony Scambler (8) 36pts
3rd Don Richardson (10) 35pts
4th Per Aschan (8) 34pts
B Flight (18+)
1st Kae (27) 36pts
2nd Brad Todd (18) 35pts
3rd Ed Stewart (18) 34pts
4th Jayson Schembri (18) 32pts
Near pins were won by John Harney on the fifth, Tony Scambler on the eighth, Scot Eaton on the fifteenth and Brad Todd on the seventeenth.
Long first putts saw Ebrahim on the ninth and Per Aschan on the eighteenth, successful.
The NAGA award was won by Frank (Paco) Waterhouse who got away to a slow start, faded and reportedly was in more strife than Brick Bradford and Clutch Cargo combined. Paco indicated he couldn’t pick Michael Jordan out of a room full of pygmies let alone hand in a decent card. We agreed.
Once again the players contributed a few shaekles to Deefa the dog for the needy children of Pattaya and they are thanked for their efforts.
Thursday, Feb. 14, Royal Lakeside – Stableford
After two weeks in Perth, Western Australia it was great to be back in Pattaya and after the 40 degree days over there it was unusual to return to Thailand to a cooler climate. Firstly I must say many thanks to Mike Gosden & Martin Todd for “taking care of business” in my absence, it is much appreciated by all. Also many thanks to The Drut for his very funny write ups.
Everyone was looking forward to our return to Royal Lakeside after several months and we had 29 golfers keen & ready to make the journey. Assembling at The Growling Swan we welcomed Rohan Wright and Ken Blinco back playing with us and a hearty welcome to first timer Steen Borregaard from Denmark. We were sadly saying farewell to our good friend Jayson Schembri who would shortly be returning to Australia after a long stint in Pattaya.
Departing the GS just a tad ahead of schedule at 8.28 am we headed off up No. 7 and arrived at the golf course just 60 minutes later. The course was not very busy so after a few practice putts and other minor acts of preparation we were able to send our first four-ball away right on time at 10.00 am.
The weather was great with a bit of a breeze to cool things down a bit and the golf course was in superb condition with magnificent but very slick greens so it was almost impossible to avoid a three-putt at some stage of your round.
With a Thai four-ball in front of us it was slow at first but they soon got the hang of things and we completed our front nine in the very good time of two hours. A similar pace was maintained on the back nine although we did slow down a bit as the wind dropped and it became fairly hot. We managed to complete our full round in the excellent time of four hours and ten minutes after a very enjoyable round of golf on a great course with excellent company.
It should be mentioned that we played off the white tees which were well forward on most occasions so some very good scores were expected and received.
We were able to have 2 grades with five podium spots in each. A Grade was for handicaps 0 to 17 and B Grade for 18 and over. We had nearest the pins on all the par threes and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
The winner of A Grade with a fine 41 points was Ken Blinco and the consistent Martin Todd finished second just 2 points further back. In third place was Alain “Inspector Clouseau” Taddei with 38 points, 1 point ahead of Ebrahim who finished fourth and Rohan Wright rounded off the podium on 36 points.
The biggest applause of the day went to Sandy “Leiperfrog” Leiper who won the B Grade with a terrific 40 points and Duangjai “Kae” Tusagad finished second just 1 point behind. Graham “Grunter” Buckingham was third with 37 points and Bjarne “Rainbow” Kjaer came fourth, with Jayson Schembri fifth on 32 points.
A Flight (0-17)
1st Ken Blinco (17) 41pts
2nd Martin Todd (8) 39pts
3rd Alain Taddei (17) 38pts
4th Ebrahim (16) 37pts
5th Rohan Wright (12) 36pts
B Flight (18+)
1st Sandy Leiper (34) 40pts
2nd Duangjai Tusagad (27) 39pts
3rd Graham Buckingham (25) 37pts
4th Bjarne Kjaer (18) 36pts
5th Jayson Schembri (18) 32pts
Near Pins: 3rd – Peter Bye, 6th – Rohan Wright, 12th – Steen Borregaard, 15th – Ernie Picken
Long Putts: 9th – Geri Crilly, 18th – Jayson Schembri
It was also time to announce the inaugural winner of The Growling Swan Golfer of The Month award for January, 2013. Congratulations go to Mike “Hunter” Gosden who won prizes sponsored by The Growling Swan and Vince Romeo. Yours truly, Peter Blackburn finished second and Roy “Plums” Dayton was third.
The award is established by totalling the golfers’ best four stableford rounds of the month.
1st Mike Gosden 145pts
2nd Peter Blackburn 144pts
3rd Roy Dayton 138pts
The Growling Swan NAGA Award, (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Mine Host, Peter Grey who accepted the award in fine style and wore the NAGA cap for a considerable time at the bar afterwards like the good sport that he is. In the absence of big Ken Bernek it was Toddy who paraded Deefa the Dog and many donations were collected for the needy in Pattaya from our ever generous Growling Swan Crew.
Note: Growling Swan Golf welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan (formerly The Bunker Bar) in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 am with transport departing at 8.30 am. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn @gmail.com.
