PSC Golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, Jan. 18, Silky Oak – Stableford
All was peaceful as we boarded the buses to make our way to Silky Oaks for another challenging day out. Our arrival was uneventful other than having to wait for our caddies, who at 9.30am were apparently all busy still eating!
As we congregated one the first tee and waited for a few other groups playing off the white tees to clear the way, a tee top conference was being discussed by a few of our organizers as to which tees we would use today. Finally “Ricey” (Graham Rice) announced that we would play off the yellow tees for the very first time on this course. That’s when the peaceful atmosphere was shattered! There were immediate cries of disbelief, outrage and dare I say “constant whinging” by a few vocal local ring ins, who have a reputation in this regard.”
Graham Rice (left) with Fred Cuypers.
The first hole has a 150-yard carry off the white tees and with the yellow tee another 30 odd yards further back, the first shot of the day was a bit daunting for many, especially as we were playing straight into a breeze! Most golfers who know this course were mentally toying with the prospect of confronting several other holes ahead that had similar water carries!
The course was in great shape with superb fairways offering perfect lies for those who managed to reach them. One good aspect of playing off the yellow tees was that all the golfers managed for the first time to hit a full shot on the notoriously short par 3, 6th hole.
Not surprisingly, it was the A graders who cleaned up and nobody managed to play to their handicap today. The higher handicappers were all checking out the second hand golf ball prices back at the club house. It will be a brave man who nominates the yellow tees again on this course!
Fred Cuypers won on a count back from Ricey with 33 points, whilst third and fourth spots, also requiring a count back, were taken by Martin Kempton and Denis Steele with 32 points respectively.
1st Fred Cuypers (15) 33pts
2nd Graham Rice (12) 33pts
3rd Martin Kempton (13) 32pts
4th Denis Steele (12) 32pts
Near Pins: #3 Graham Rice, #8
Dave Fletcher, #14 Ebrahim, #16 Fred Cuypers
Long Putts: #9 Stu Rifkin
Thursday, Jan 21, Plutaluang – Stableford
Twenty-seven golfers headed out to tackle the Navy course and we were set to play North & West nines from the yellow tees. The track was in great nick with the greens being slow for the first hour, but as soon as the sun came out the greens did a 360. The fairways had a bit of run and there was plenty of water to challenge all the golfers as it was placed sometimes at 2 or 3 locations on the one hole.
Andrew Allen (left) and Alex Field.
Alex Field left daylight between himself and the rest as he won the top flight with a whopping 42 points. In Division B it was tight at the top of the tree with Andrew Allen taking the chockies on a count back from Shane Young.
A Flight
1st Alex Field (19) 42pts
2nd Fritz Weber (24) 40pts
3rd Alan Sanders (22) 36pts
4th Pierre Cere (11) 34pts
B Flight
1st Andrew Allen (30) 32pts
2nd Shane Young (27) 32pts
3rd Harry Wszola (36) 31pts
4th Allan Ray (26) 30pts
Near Pins: N3 Stu Rifkin, N6 Patrick Poussier, W3 Colm Mullen, W8 Brad Green
Long Putts: N9 John Davis, W9 Robert Allen
Note: The GS is a friendly golf outlet and caters for and encourages all golfers male and female to have a hit at any of our weekly outings. We generally play Mondays and Thursdays at one of the many fine golf courses in and around Pattaya. Please contact Peter Grey if you are interested on 0861 503086.
