IPGC golf from The Haven
Monday, July 8, Crystal Bay – Stableford
Having made a few attempts to contact the course earlier in the morning without success, as the phone rang without any response, the group arrived to find the possible reason. There were no carts to be allowed at all following extremely heavey overnight rain and on further enquiry the whole course was found to be flooded, although unsurprisingly the staff were happy to have everyone check in and pay for green fees and seemed genuinely surprised when the players, comprising five groups, all refused to pay and play.
Maybe one day managements will understand the need to advise groups in advance when their course is really unfit for play, which would not upset their customers but on the contrary would add to their esteem rather than detract, as is sometimes the case at the present time.
Shuichi Kodaka.
Wednesday, July 10, Khao Kheow A & C (yellow tees) – Stableford
CSS 72
1st Shuichi Kodaka (16) 35pts
2nd Hal Hart (20) 32pts
3rd Peter Buckley (19) 31pts
4th Trevor Schirmer (12) 30pts
5th Terry Hodgkiss (22) 30pts
There is a tremendous amount of maintenance work and renovation being undertaken on the two nines that are still open for play, which requires the need for special local rules to be implemented as most of the areas requiring and under repair are unmarked.
Many players will remember when Bangpra undertook a similar challenge a few years back and staked out half of the fairways under repair as GUR allowing the placement on the part of the fairway not affected if the ball lay in the fairway GUR, and thus enabling the continuance of a reasonable round. This needs to be done at this course at this time and in the absence of this a competition local rule should be applied which will definitely be the case the next time the Soi 13 group play, which should then make for an acceptable days golf at this popular course.
Terry Hodgkiss.
Unfortunately the situation only became apparent after the start and therefore the scores on the day were adversely affected with only the winner, Shuichi Kodaka, being able to get near to his handicap. After starting out well on the front nine Shuichi ran out an easy winner by three shots ahead of Hal Hart in second place as Hal put in a couple of nines that included too many single pointers.
Peter Buckley took second after having a disastrous start collecting just a solitary point on the last three holes but then applied himself well to cover the back nine in one under handicap to secure third place.
Trevor Schirmer won a count back with Terry Hodgkiss with a better 14 to 13 as terry once again found the closing holes a bit of a struggle.
There were no 2’s in either division.
Before the presentations were made there was a welcome back for Patrick Scullion.
Friday, July 12, Treasure Hill – Stableford
CSS 74 NC
1st Terry Hodgkiss (22) 33pts
2nd Kevin Blake (5) 30pts
3rd Graham Davis (8) 29pts
4th Markku Tynell (22) 28pts
5th Tom McCarthy (21) 28pts
Following the tough day experienced on the previous outing there was to be no respite at the always difficult Treasure Hill, where even moving the start positions to the yellow tees failed to help the hopefuls get anywhere near to their handicap levels.
Terry Hodgkiss made up for missing out on many occasions recently as he took the top honours for the day with a three over handicap return that was in its turn good enough by three to see off the nearest challenger. For once Terry kept the pressure on right to the end with a back nine that was better than the front for a pleasant change and having just one zero on the tricky 15th where a good tee shot placement is vital.
Kevin Blake was well in contention after nine but faded badly scoring just eight points on the last seven holes when in contention for his first win of the trip.
Graham Davis, another single figure handicapper, took third after he also struggled to score on the last four holes, taking a meager single point from each but that was enough to stake his claim for third.
Markku Tynell won a count back over Tom McCarthy with a better 17 to 14 after he had experienced a less than stellar opening half for the day.
Once again there were no 2’s in either division.
Back at The Haven there were welcome backs for Adrian Cook and Danny Greer.
Note. If you would like to play with The Haven group, you can contact mobile 082 219 0965 or call in to The Haven Hotel, at 185 Soi 13, between Beach Road and 2nd Road. All transportation to the course is arranged and you do not need to sign up prior to the day, but you should be there by 8.15 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on the days that you wish to play. A schedule of courses to be played can be found on our web site at www.thehaven-hotel.com.
