PSC Golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Tuesday, Jan. 13, Lotus Valley – Day 1
With the numbers climbing from 24 to 35, this little gem of a tour has placed itself firmly on the calendar of annual tours presented by the Outback. Fantastic value, at a little over 7,000 baht, and not only taking the opportunity to play the beautifully presented former Gary Player design, Lotus Valley course twice, but also the interesting parkland course at Royal Hills.
It is always difficult to find the right length of course to play when you have a field of mixed ability golfers ranging from 5 H’cap up to 30, and here we changed the tee from whites on the first day, perhaps more as a sighting round at 6147 yards, to the blues for the final round at 6527 yards. Course handicaps were generally seen to vary between 2 and 3 shots depending upon one’s exact index.
(From left) Peter Erikson, Tony Aslett, Andre Coetzee and Brendan Cope.
We left the Outback as planned at around 8.30 a.m. and arrived in plenty of time for our 11.30 scheduled tee-off, greeted by the General Manager who advised that we could have a two-tee start at about 11.40 a.m., which was of great benefit as we still had the hour and fifteen minute drive up to Royal Hills after golf. The roads round here have not improved and one has to take considerable care to avoid not only large potholes but also some rather large trucks and trailers.
Regrettably General Jack had managed to do something to his back and was a non-starter as was Muzza who never actually got to leave Pattaya as he had been called to work the following day, leaving a field of 33, divided into three divisions.
The scoring was not as high as one would have expected from the whites with the top score of the day coming from Tony Pieroni (14) with 38pts to win Div B and the next best being 37 attained by Tony Aslett that won him Div C, with Barry Copestake getting 36 to take second in B.
Best score in A came from Guy Brennan on 35, followed home by J P Maffray, Andre Coetzee and Peter Erikson. The minor placings in the other divs were filled by Louis Doyon and John Locke in B and John O’Connor, Fidge Button and John Lawton in C.
There were three ‘2’s today from Tony Pieroni (3rd), John O’Connor (8th) and Kim Danboise (12th).
Div A (0-10)
1st Guy Brennan (07) 35pts
2nd Jean P Maffray (10) 34pts
3rd Andre Coetzee (05) 33pts
4th Peter Erikson (03) 32pts
Div B (11-15)
1st Tony Pieroni, (12) 38pts
2nd Barry Copestake (11) 36pts
3rd Louis Doyon (14) 34pts
4th John Locke (12) 32pts
Div C (16+)
1st Tony Aslett (24) 37pts
2nd John O’Connor (17) 35pts
3rd Fidge Button (16) 34pts
4th John Lawton (16) 34pts
Wednesday, Jan. 14, Royal Hills – Day 2
Well, I did warn everybody that it was cold here but perhaps not quite as cold as last year when one of the restaurant doors was missing.
The journey up from Lotus Valley to Royal Hills was relatively uneventful although it’s quite amazing the different routes that the GPS gizmos take us. Interestingly enough the one I had was still telling me to do a U turn even after I arrived. Thank God for Google Maps!
B2, John Lawton and Fidge Button at Royal Hills.
Check in was easy with the group split about two thirds in the Baan Ing Paa rooms and the other third in the hotel proper.
Our first group teed off a little ahead of our scheduled 9 a.m. start, in brilliant sunshine with a swirling strong wind and although playing from the relatively short whites, there was no doubt that they were all going to have a hard day at the office. Amongst comments at the halfway point included, “the greens are very difficult, tougher than Bangpra” and the prediction was that few would score more than 30 points. How right that proved to be with the computerised buffer adjustment rating the course down to a mere 32 points equalling par, as only two players in Div A, Andre Coetzee & Peter Erikson, Tony Pieroni in Div B and Chris Thompson in Div C actually scored 30 or better.
Perhaps Chris’s 33, which won Div C, was the most remarkable of them all. Having scored only 10 points on the front nine he suddenly woke up and pressed the accelerator to score an amazing 23 on the back, which included birdieing both par 3’s. That feat also won him a 2000 baht voucher to spend at Pattaya City Golf.
The minor places in C went to Brendan, B2 & Noddy with 29, 28 & 27 respectively; in Div B; John Locke, Tony Garnet, Tony Cooling & Kim Danboise all had 29 points and in Div A; after Andre & Peter, were Ed Wyckoff, Guy Brennan and Steve Mann, all also on 29.
There were five ‘2’s from Guy Brennan, Suzi Lawton & Chris Thompson (13th) and John O’Connor & Chris Thompson again on the 16th.
Div A (0-11)
1st Andre Coetzee (06) 34pts
2nd Peter Erikson (04) 31pts
3rd Ed Wyckoff (09) 29pts
4th Guy Brennan (08) 29pts
Div B (12-16)
1st Tony Pieroni (13) 30pts
2nd John Locke (12) 29pts
3rd Tony Garnett (14) 29pts
4th Tony Cooling (13) 29pts
Div C (18+)
1st Chris Thompson (22) 33pts
2nd Brendan Cope (26) 29pts
3rd Bruce McAdam (26) 28pts
4th Noddy Moyle (20) 27pts
Thursday, Jan. 15, Lotus Valley – Day 3
We left Royal Hills early at about 7.15 a.m. for the anticipated one hour or so drive to Lotus Valley for our scheduled two-tee 9 a.m. start. It was another stunning morning weather wise and the traffic lighter than expected and most of us did the journey in under an hour.
We were told we could start when we wanted, eventually teeing off at about 8.45am with the leading players going out last. There little or no wind, so the blue tees did appeal to some of the bigger hitters but others suffered in the hands of the extra 380 yards, perhaps nobody more so than our two round leader, Tony Pieroni, who slumped to a mere 24 points today. Sugar Ray had a round he’d sooner forget, notching up a record seven wipes in a row but he laughed it off as Sugar would and he will bounce back.
Kim Danboise and Tony Stevens recorded the best rounds of the day, both from Div B and both with 37 points but Kim got the nod over Tony on count back. Two more good rounds came in Div C from Tony Aslett and Noddy Moyle with 36 apiece, Tony getting the win, while Div A went to Ed Wyckoff with a fine 35 points. Other notables were Peter Erikson (34pts) after dumping his first shot in the water and wiping the tenth hole, so a good recovery from him, and also Andy Butterworth and Erwan Crozetiere both scoring 33 points and enjoying the extra length.
Presentation was delayed until Friday at the Outback to give Jack time to properly check all the scores before declaring the overall winner. In a close finish and beating one of the favourites Andre Coetzee to top spot by just one point was Tony Aslett with a three day total of 99 points. Peter Erikson was pleasantly surprised to finish in joint third with Brendan Cope, as he didn’t feel he played that well and the strong finish from Kim Danboise took him well up the leaderboard to finish joint fifth with Louis Doyon. Ed Wyckoff finished in seventh with the remaining podium finishers in joint eighth; Tony Stevens, Noddy Moyle and second round leader, Tony Pieroni.
There were no ‘2’s today at Lotus Valley so the pot was shared between 8 players
Div A (0-13)
1st Ed Wyckoff (10) 35pts
2nd Peter Erikson (05) 34pts
3rd Andy Butterworth (08) 33pts
4th Erwan Crozetiere (13) 33pts
Div B (14-18)
1st Kim Danboise (15) 37pts
2nd Tony Stevens, (14) 37pts
3rd Louis Doyon (17) 35pts
4th Tony Cooling (15) 34pts
Div C (19+)
1st Tony Aslett (27) 36pts
2nd Noddy Moyle (22) 36pts
3rd Brendan Cope (29) 34pts
4th Suzi Lawton (29) 29pts
Overall Result
1st Tony Aslett 99pts
2nd Andre Coetzee 98pts
T3rd Peter Erikson 97pts
T3rd Brendan Cope 97pts
T5th Kim Danboise 96pts
T5th Louis Doyon 96pts
7th Ed Wyckoff 93pts
T8th Tony Stevens 92pts
T8th Noddy Moyle 92pts
T8th Tony Pieroni 92pts
Note: The Outback Golf Bar is situated about 6km from Sukhumvit Road along Soi Siam Country. Call Jack on 081 578 1956.
