Monday, September 12th
Eastern Star Golf Course
1st Gary Smith (10) 36 points
2nd Ross Schiffke (19) 35 points
3rd Nik Evans (14) 33 points
Near pins: Nik Evans, Paul Smith, Gary Smith, & Robby Watts.
A new week of golf began pretty much as last week with the game preceded by torrential overnight rain which resulted in major flooding in Pattaya and its surrounds. Though over forty kilometers away from Pattaya, the Eastern Star course was not spared. Most if not all the bunkers on the course were flooded, the fairways sodden, but the greens were remarkably dry if not in the best condition.
There was the never-ending threat of rain throughout the round; fortunately, we stayed relatively dry with only the occasional spot of rain. The Eastern Star course is a challenge at the best of times, but with wet fairways and no run, it was an even greater challenge today. A couple of golfers rose to the challenge none more so than Gary Smith who took pride of place at the top of the leaderboard with thirty-six points. After a couple of games to settle in Ross Schiffke found form to take second place with thirty-five points, and a rare visit by Nik Evans saw him take third place with thirty-three, Nik also attended the presentation which is even more rare for him as he lives in Rayong. All the near pins were shared around today with one each to Nik, Paul & Gary Smith, and Robby Watts in his last game of this tour of duty taking the final pin.
Wednesday, September 14th
St Andrews Golf Course
1st Gary Smith (10) 41points
2nd Kob Glover (20) 33 points
3rd Les Cobban (9) 32 points
Near pins, Ross Schiffke, Gary Smith, & Liam Malone X 2.
Sometimes the strangest things happen on the golf course; today a caddie got very excited having found a live crab on the cart path. She looked to be licking her lips in anticipation of a gourmet supper; alas the crab eluded her grasp and escaped so it was back to somtum again.
Today looked like being a great day for golf but by the third hole, we got hit with a torrential downpour, which held up play for about thirty minutes, thereafter it remained fine. Despite the amount of rain recently the course was in remarkably good condition, the fairways were excellent, the greens improved on our last visit, but the bunkers still remain in a very shabby state. A lot of work has been put into the course since our last visit so hopefully, by our next visit the bunkers will have been refreshed.
Gary Smith remains in a rich vein of form and took the honours for the second day in a row with an excellent score of forty-one points, when will this run end? Second place went to Kob Glover with thirty-three points with Les Cobban in third a further stroke adrift. All the near pins were taken with one each to Ross Schiffke and Gary Smith with a newcomer straight off the street Liam Malone taking two.
Friday, September 16th
Treasure Hill Golf Course
1st Les Cobban (9) 31 points
2nd Niall Glover (12) 30 points
3rd Keith Hemmings (25) 29 points
4th Michael Brett (15) 29 points
Near pins Les Cobban & Paul Smith.
After weeks of inclement weather, it was nice to get a fine day for the last game of the week at Treasure Hill. Despite all the rain, the course was in remarkably good condition, nevertheless, it was a wise decision to play pick, clean, and drop from the off as there were plenty of mud balls.
As always scoring was very modest as Treasure Hill is such a challenging and unforgiving course. With Gary Smith away indisposed there was an opportunity for someone else to set up and claim first place and Les Cobban was the one to do it with a score of thirty-one, probably one of the lowest winning scores for some time. Niall Glover took second one point adrift while Keith Hemmings who at times played excellent golf only to fade away still did enough to take third on countback from Michael Brett. It was also Keith’s last game of this tour. Remarkably only two near pins were won going to Les Cobban and of course Paul Smith, Paul had one of his lowest ever front nines but recovered well on the back to also record a twenty-nine-point card.
 |
 |
 |
