The IPGC Monthly Members’ Tournament
Wednesday, Dec. 1 – Khao Kheow
The start of high season saw a large field of IPGC members gather at Khao Kheow for the December IPGC Members’ Tournament. The preferred nines, A and B, were well presented and a fine dry day held the prospect of some excellent golf on the popular course.
Each monthly member’s tournament provides three winners in the divisions and one from the ladies, who will go forward to the finals to compete for the Gold and Silver Medals later in the season.
Divisional winners: Tim Lazecki, Shuichi Kodaka, Noi Emerson, and Yasuo Suzuki.
In addition the tournaments will also be used to determine the IPGC Gentleman Player of the Year, with between 1 and 15 points to be won in each division every month, dependant on final positions, which will then be aggregated for the year to establish the overall winner. As usual the first division contests a stroke play format whilst the second, third and Ladies’ division play Stableford.
In the first division the contest was amazingly a very tight affair with four golfers all finishing on net 70, giving the recorder Stephen Beard the opportunity to dust down his slide rule and apply the count-back rule. Wichai Tananusorn was the unlucky golfer to drop out of the frame as his back nine of net 37 just failed behind the efforts of Paul McNally (36.5), Chris Voller (35) and the winner Yasuo Suzuki with net 34. Runner-up Chris Voller still had a very successful day with two near pin wins and two birdie ‘2’s emphasising the accuracy of his iron play.
The second division also saw the intervention of the recorder’s slide rule with three golfers contesting third place with 34 points; Tom Byrne emerging as the place winner, his back nine total of 19 points holding sway against the efforts of Peter Skinner (14) and Chris Knapp (12). Murray Hart’s consistency was rewarded with a second place finish on 35 points whilst Shuichi Kodaka led the flight home with an excellent 38 point return.
The third division was again a tight affair with count-back separating Bryan Rought and Roar Berger for third place, the latter’s finish of 21 points nosing out Bryan’s level par 18. Similarly Derek Holts back nine of 15 points relegated him to runner-up after an excellent response on the back nine by Tim Lazecki brought him his biggest success in his short IPGC career to win the flight with 37 points.
The Ladies’ winner was Noi Emmerson on 35 points.
In the ‘2’s competitions there were wins for Chris Voller (two), Paul McNally, Wichai Tananusorn, Keith Evans, Ted Lodge, Shui Kodaka, Joe Peters and Al Rolnik whilst the near-pin divisional winners are listed below.
After the tournament there was a the usual excellent presentation buffet at Siam Cats in Jomtien, generously sponsored as always by the IPGC, and IPGC Chairman Chris Knapp warmly thanked all those who had worked hard once again to ensure the success of the competition, especially registrar Glyn Evans from Jomtien, Starter Chris Knapp, results coordinator Stephen Beard and the event organiser Russell Exley.
Next month’s event at The Emerald will be certainly be eagerly anticipated by the IPGC members after such a successful day at Khao Kheow.
Div. 1
1st Yasuo Suzuki net 70
2nd Chris Voller net 70
3rd Paul McNally net 70
Div. 2
1st Shuichi Kodaka 38pts
2nd Murray Hart 35pts
3rd Tom Byrne 34pts
Div. 3
1st Tim Lazecki 37pts
2nd Derek Holt 37pts
3rd Roar Berger 35pts
Ladies
1st Noi Emmerson 35pts
Near Pins: Murray Hart, Rod Howett, Kazuo Takimoto, Ted Lodge (2), Al Rolnik, Chris Voller (2), Bryan Rought, Richard Bannister, Keith Beckham.
