PSC golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, Oc. 14, Bangpra – Stableford
After raining heavily during the night it was a relief to see the sun break through as I made my way to The Growling Swan to meet up with the remainder of our group of 19 golfers who were signed up to play Bangpra.
We welcomed back Bob Akapita from his work at Gove in the Northern Territory of Australia, Roy “Plums” Dayton and his lady Duangjai “Kae” Tusagad, who have recently returned from California, and good friend Walter “Mr Colours” Baechli who was having a game with us once again.
John Davis, Ebrahim & Bob Akapita.
All were on time so our 2 mini vans got away 5 minutes ahead of schedule at 8.25 am and in just 40 minutes we were at the course where the weather was holding up well. It was extremely busy so we knew the chances of an early tee-off was remote so we had plenty of time to relax and practice and eventually our first group got away 5 minutes later than our allotted 10.30 time.
With many groups in front of us, mostly painfully slow ones we resigned ourselves to a slow round but despite much recent rain the course was not too bad although quite wet in parts. The greens though were up to their usual tricks despite the rest of the course being wet and three putts were again the order of the day.
After a very slow round of five hours and five minutes we eventually finished after most of us found the course tough on the day and indeed we only had one golfer who played to their handicap or better.
We had 2 divisions, Division A for handicaps 0 to 17 and Division B for handicaps of 18 and over with 3 places in each division. There were also rewards for nearest the pins on all the par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens.
The A Division winner was Bob Akapita with a fine 37 points and with 2 golfers on 34 points a count back was needed which saw Martin “Toddy” Todd (18 point back nine) take second place from Mike Allidi (16 point back nine) who finished third.
In Division B it was John Davis winning with 31 points from Patrick Poussier in second spot with 28 points. Another count back was required to determine third spot and it was Dick “Reverend” Braimbridge (12 point back nine) who prevailed over Max “Corsets” Bracegirdle (10 point back nine).
Division A
1st Bob Akapita (17) 37pts
2nd Martin Todd (8) 34pts
3rd Mike Allidi (2) 34pts
Division B
1st John Davis (21) 31pts
2nd Patrick Poussier (22) 28pts
3rd Dick Braimbridge (35) 26pts
Near Pins: 2nd – Peter Blackburn, 8th – Mike Allidi, 12th – Stu Rifkin, 17th – Stu Rifkin
Long Putts: 9th – Stu Rifkin, 18th – John Pierrel
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 Ebrahim after a three-way count back and he accepted the award in very good spirit.
Toddy then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers.
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.
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00am on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 084 345 4005.
