Monday, May 15
Greenwood A & B Golf Course
1st Billy Shepley (9) 39 points
2nd Les Cobban (11) 37 points
3rd Graeme Mullins (22) 37 points
4th Kob Glover (14) 36 points
Near pins Niall Glover, Les Cobban, Lee Gadd, & Billy Shepley
A new week began with a game at Greenwood where we were allocated the A & B nines. The day was hot with only a gentle breeze blowing, not enough to cool things down, and certainly not enough to blow away the pesky fruit flies which were out in plague proportions and most annoying. As always Greenwood was in nice condition and even the greens which had been lightly sanded recently were still good for putting.
Scores as always at this course were on the high side, top of the tree was Billy Shepley who had a particularly nice round with thirty-nine points off a nine handicap in first place. After a long search, we found Les Cobban again and he can still play taking second place with thirty-seven points and edging out Graeme Mullins into third on countback. Kob Glover rounded out the winners list with thirty-six points. All the near pins were taken with one each to Niall Glover, Les Cobban, Billy Shepley, and newcomer Lee Gadd with his first win of any kind at the Bunker.
The lucky shot of the day went to Mike Smith who on A8 hit his third shot out of the right bunker, his ball looked headed about twenty yards past the green, fortunately with the wind blowing the cloth on the flagstick at the perfect angle to snag his ball and drop it straight down adjacent to the hole for a tap-in par, as they say, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
Wednesday, May 17
The Vintage Club Golf Course
1st Les Humphrey (30) 38 points
2nd Michael Brett (16) 38 points
3rd Mike Smith (19) 37 points
Near pins Niall Glover, Peter Bottrell, & Michael Brett X 2.
It had been almost a year since our last visit to The Vintage Club when it rained all day long and somewhat spoiled what would have otherwise been the perfect day on this magnificent course. Today was very different when it was hot and humid, and the course was not in the pristine condition it was last time when it was competition ready, however, it was still a really nice track.
A total of fourteen made the extra-long trip to Samut Prakan and most agreed that it was worth the extra effort. Playing off the yellow tees which was our usual distance the course provided plenty of challenge and scoring was surprisingly good with several golfers getting multiple birdies. A breakthrough win today for Les Humphrey top scoring with thirty-eight points and pushing Michael Brett into second place on countback. Mike Smith was just a stroke back in third place. Near pins went to Peter Bottrell and Niall Glover with Michael Brett taking two.
Whilst green fees are a bit on the high side and the travel time is too long for some we have to decide if we play there again before the next high season pricing kicks in or do we choose a different venue for our monthly signature course.
Friday, May 19
Treasure Hill Golf Course
1st Greg Berry (15) 36 points
2nd Billy Shepley (9) 35 points
3rd Craig Dows (4) 34 points
Near pins Billy Shepley, Greg Berry, & Kob Glover.
Today at Treasure Hills we not only had to deal with the usual plague of fruit flies but also hoards of dragonflies and even butterflies at times. For some reason, butterflies seem to be attracted to golf balls and often fly around them or even land on them at all the wrong times, yet another challenge to add to the difficulty imposed by trees in all the wrong places.
Normally people consider Treasure Hill as one of the hardest courses we play and scoring is not easy. Today a new player to the Bunker Boys from Finland Ari Seppala who despite a handicap in the mid-twenties managed to snare three birdies so how difficult can it be? In a mixed round of some forgettable shots and plenty of very good ones, Greg Berry took first place with thirty-six points, one ahead of Billy Shepley in second with Craig Dows a stroke further back in third place. Three near pins went to Kob Glover, Billy Shepley, and Greg Berry.
