IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at the Elephant Bar
The Pattaya Golf Society ended the year in fine style with its 154th competition arranged for Khao Kheow on Monday, 29th December. The format was the group’s monthly medal and a strong wind on the tough course really set the day up for some serious golf.
The field was divided into two flights at fourteen and under and from the start the scoring would be tough on the A and C nines, with rock hard fairways, fluffy bunkers and moderate greens – not the speed of 10 as indicated on the starter’s board.
In the second flight, John Chelo and Jim Ferris shared second place with net 75 whilst David Wang from Shanghai took the win with a quality net 74. In the top flight, Alan Flynn and Simon Kendall shared second place with net 75’s, the flight going to an excellent performance by Jon Batty, “Mr Consistency”, who recorded net 73. In his six months with the group Jon’s golf has been very impressive and we all look forward to this trend continuing well into the new year.
Jim Ferris recorded the only birdie ‘2’ of the day, on the short A5 and the bar’s consolation beer went to Peter Ditz. The Booby Bevy went to Kim Hewton after the saga of his C1 hole with two OB’s, three balls in water and the inevitable pick up and NR with 170 yards still to go!
It has been an excellent year for the group with the third best attendance record in the past ten years and Mr Len and the rest of the PGS golf friends wish everyone all the best for another fine golfing year in Pattaya.
Mt. Shadow shows its teeth
The Pattaya Golf Society took ten groups to Mountain Shadow for the group’s first stableford competition of 2015. Upon arrival it was apparent there were no caddies, resulting in a wait of up to 40 minutes for many. When finally teeing off, it was soon clear that this was going to be a long, windy and arduous battle, and so it proved. The two-flight competition was split at 18 and under.
Course fairways were in reasonable condition but did have bare patches, especially in locations where balls tended to gather, such as the approach shot to the par-five third. Many bunkers here also need better maintenance, and more rakes. Putting surfaces were good to very good, however some hole locations were too tough, being placed on slopes and making downhill-down-grain putts impossible to stop. Notwithstanding that, a high-season rate of 1,050 baht green-fee and caddie-fee represents excellent value-for-money; we will be back.
There were four ‘2’s today, three in A Flight, and just the one in B Flight. The lucky B Flight golfer was Willie Barbour, whose ‘2’ on the 15th saw him pocket three times the amount of his A Flight peers. They were Huw Phillips #15, Mark Cooper # 5, and David Thomas #17.
Only one golfer broke net par, B Flight contestant Charlie Charalambrous, whose standout haul of 39 points was two better than the last time we were here, on December 17. He won his flight on that occasion as well, but today his score was the best – by four – of any other competitor of either flight. The next best score in B Flight was 32 so it was a dominant win.
The best score in A Flight was 35 points, recorded by Jon Batty, whose consistently good golf has seen him at or near the top in many PGS competitions of late.
Back at the Elephant Bar, welcome backs were extended to Barry Wellings and Allan Pilkington from the UK, Larry Slattery from Ireland, Marrku Tynell from Finland, Wayne Morrison from Australia and Ugan Naidoo from South Africa. A welcome for the first time was extended to Mike Korney from Canada.
The lucky beer draw went to Masashi Iizumi, whilst regular podium placer Dave Lehane picked up the booby bevy for his ‘mare of a round which contained a split of 5–11 for a 16 total.
A Flight
1st Jon Batty (8) 35pts
T2nd Tony Campbell (8) 33pts
T2nd Alan Flynn (10) 33pts
T4th Mike Korney (18) 32pts
T4th Mike Wellings (5) 32pts
B Flight
1st Charlie Charalambous (29) 39pts
2nd Alan Duckett (20) 32pts
3rd Marrku Tynell (22) 30pts
4th Ciaran Lyne (21) 27pts
Congratulations to both divisional winners. With the course playing tough, these winning scores represented excellent rounds of golf, particularly one of 3-under par!
A closing plea to Mountain Shadow management; we really appreciate the upgrade to the ablution block, but please install anti-slip mats on those shiny new shower floor tiles. They currently represent an accident (or many) waiting to happen.
