PSC Golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Oct. 19, Burapha – Stableford
1st Sugar Ray Handford (19) 39pts
2nd Pete Stonebridge (20) 38pts
3rd Ed Turner (21) 37pts
Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole! That is how Dion Lane and Carl Thompson arrived at the 1st tee at Burapa on their return trip. These awesome fellas arrived Heinekens in hand after an all-nighter on their first day, so we decided to rather let their 3 ball together with Sugar Ray go last; it was clearly going to be a long day. And it was – Dion raked in a full 8 points in 18 holes!
Phil Mitchell (left) & Mathias Hermann.
To top it off, a huge storm passed over Burapha and Sugar’s group made it back to the clubhouse within minutes of all hell breaking loose in a heavy electric storm dumping rain by the buckets. Pity to the others playing behind our society.
All the singing, lightning and ominous weather didn’t put Sugar Ray off in the least; he enjoyed the opportunity to beat a few baht out of the Kiwi’s and managed to finish the day in top form and first place with a fabulous 39 points. Well done Sugar!
Pete Stonebridge finished just behind Sugar with 38 points, and Ed turner had a great day with his 37.
Quite a few ‘2’’s were recorded, with Kim Danboisy getting one on the 3rd hole and John Cunningham recording two on the 6th and the 12th holes.
Wednesday, Oct. 21, Siam Plantation – Stableford
1st Phil Mitchell (08) 45pts
2nd Mathias Hermann (15) 45pts
3rd Paul Smith (05) 38pts
4th Matt Timbrell (07) 36pts
Using the vouchers on offer by Siam members, we had another good turnout with players capitalising on the special rates which expire by the end of this month. The course was beautiful as ever, just a pity that Sugar Cane was closed, which is, in my humble view, the best 9 holes in all of Pattaya. So Tapioca and Pineapple it was. The greens were really good, fast and true, but the course was a little wet from the previous day’s rain so we should have probably played ‘lift, clean and place’, but so be it.
I had the pleasure to play with young German Mathias Hermann, who has a beautiful smooth swing and good finish, so we will definitely see his handicap come down even more in the near term. After 8 holes, this young man was level par and kept racking in the 3 and 4-pointers. I thought that he was surely going to start flaking out, but he kept his composure and finished the back nine with 21 points to finish on an awesome 45 points.
In another 4-ball, Paul Smith, who is one of the best society players in Pattaya found the white tees too easy and recorded 6 birdies to score a great 38 points. A warm welcome back to Matt Timbrell, also playing in Paul’s group who enjoyed a great game to finish on 36 in fourth place.
But the man of the day was Phil Mitchell, a very accomplished low marker with a great ball contact, who had his best game in a long while. Phil, playing with Paul, Matt and Mike Missler had an absolute scorcher to finish 1 under gross, and recorded a score of 45 points with 23 on the back nine to beat Mathias on a count back.
All our placed players recorded ‘2’s, with Phil Mitchell, Paul Smith and Matt Timbrell each recording a 2 on hole 7, and Mathias Hermann with an incredible chip in from off the steep bank on hole 17 to clinch his 2.
Friday, Oct. 23, Green Valley – Medal
1st Stephen Blazsanyik net 72
2nd Tom Byrne net 72
3rd Bruce McAdam net 72
4th Mick Beresford net 73
5th Freddy Starbeck net 73
We had a solid turnout of 9 groups and 35 players today, and it was pleasing to see more and more players coming back to the Outback. A great thank you also to Greg Hirst from the Devere Group, our generous sponsor of today’s event.
The course was in good condition but it was pretty damp so we made it ‘lift, clean and place’ to facilitate the medal comp. The greens were a little slow but much better than in previous weeks.
Predictably, no one shot the lights out so to speak but there were a couple of good scores posted at the top. Geoff Stimpson, Bob Lindborg and Keith Allen all recorded net 74s to finish in the prizes, with Geoff Stimpson on 80 taking the lowest gross as well.
In joint fourth spot on 73, Mick Beresford and Freddy Starbeck both had good rounds and three players shared first place on 72, with B2 (Bruce McAdam) and Tom Byrne losing out on count back for the trophy to Waldo (Steven Blazsanyik). As can be expected at Green Valley, there were no shortiges of 2’s, with Mathias Hermann, Peter Nixon, Thierry Petrement, Freddy Starbeck, Sel Wegner, Keith Allen, Mick Beresford and Mika Viljakainen all getting one each.
