PSC golf from The Golf Club
Monday, Jan. 2, Green Valley – Stableford
A Flight
1st Ernie Hill (0) 38pts
2nd Patrick Kelly (+2) 38pts
3rd Bob Newell (7) 37pts
4th Grant Montgomery (8) 36pts
B Flight
1st Marlene Prudden (23) 40pts
2nd Michael Jones (12) 37pts
3rd Gregg D (25) 36pts
4th Nick Handscombe (12) 36pts
Well, as you can see, the new year started off with some exceptional scoring and some quite remarkable statistics for such a small golfing venue. There were 16 single figure guys in the field and no fewer than 3 players at scratch or better! That’s a top quality turnout in anybody’s book.
Finding himself in ‘B’ flight, despite being a 12 handicapper himself, Nick Handscombe shot a good par round but only grabbed 4th. Beating him by way of count back was Gregg D. At least I think that’s what the card said anyhow!
Controlled chaos on the first tee at Greenwood.
One of a group of our Scottish friends, Michael Jones, piped in the new year with a solid 37 and 2nd. But with a nice leaving present as she and hubby are now back in Oz was Marlene Prudden with an excellent 40 point haul. The grumpy old man was on the podium quite a bit on this trip but he was overshadowed today by Marlene. Hurry back soon guys.
Up to ‘A’ and there was some top stuff here. Three guys were in count back for 4th with Grant Montgomery eventually taking the place ahead of Dave Mather and Alan Thomas. Asked why he faded so badly after an amazing 24 point front 9, Dave simply said ‘I ran out of vodka!’
Another who faded on the back was myself! Still not recovered fully from my Himalayas trek I somehow managed to hold on, despite a bogey, bogey finish and nab 3rd place. But the big guns notched the 2 top spots.
I had the pleasure of playing alongside young Patrick Kelly today (although he did play off the back tees) and it was a treat to watch. If he had just had a bit better luck with the putter I shudder to think what score he would have turned in as he had 4 birdies by 11 and lipped out for eagle on 14! Sadly he made his only bogey of the day on 18 and allowed another top golfing star in his own right, Ernie Hill, to turn it all around by birdying 18 and taking the day’s honours.
Patrick will be attempting the Asian Qualifying School this week, by way of gathering much needed experience, after all he’s only just turned seventeen! We wish him all the best – go get ‘em mate!
Wednesday, Jan. 4, Greenwood – Golf Club/Lewinski
Challenge (Day 1)
A Flight
1st JP Maffray (12) 42pts
2nd Terry Mangan (14) 40pts
3rd Francis Goyen (9) 40pts
4th Thierry Petremont (12) 38pts
B Flight
1st John Feehan (16) 42pts
2nd Alan White (22) 39pts
3rd Vee (22) 36pts
4th Mike Jeffries (18) 36pts
2’s: Christy Knight, Dave Shelton
For our 3rd ever co-sanctioned event with Lewinskis it was a little disappointing to see a somewhat poorer turnout than anticipated, from both bars, but the Golf Club in particular. It makes you wonder just what you have to do to get people motivated. I try new events and initiatives as much as I possibly can, and can only hope that people then want to be a part of them and help THEIR golf society grow.
I, frankly, find it very disheartening, at 800 baht green fee and caddy fee – I don’t know what more we can do. Thankfully the evening presentation was fantastically well supported and a great success with all the winners, bar one (same as usual!), making the effort to come and enjoy the night.
Once again the staff coped admirably and our thanks go out to them. Talking of winners and seemingly another regular occurrence, the leaderboard was again sprinkled with Frenchmen, you know who I’m taking about TP!
Good and great scores abounded, which is somewhat unusual here, normally anywhere around par is pushing for 1st place but not today. A huge crush for 3rd and 4th place in ‘B’ division saw 5 guys scrapping for the 2 places, all on that par number of 36. Warren Holland, Christy Knight and Gabriel Enright were the 3 to miss out with 4th going to Mike Jeffries and Vee getting 3rd.
It seems it’s a week for the one-name players this week… should be fine if ever Sting, Lulu or Prince come knocking for a game! I think I might make the sign-up sheet just pseudonyms from now on, just to make it that little bit more difficult to understand!
A good 3 shots clear in 2nd spot was Alan White and yet another 3 clear with a blistering 42 points was ‘B’ flight winner John Feehan.
Before we get on to A Flight a little reminder about clearly marking down your ‘2’s in these competitions. Only on a last minute double-check did I spot a ‘2’, that hadn’t been highlighted, up until then there had been only one other. It’s your responsibility gentlemen for making sure that we can see them on the card, with 50, 60 or even 70 odd cards to check we cant be held responsible if we find later that they haven’t been sufficiently marked. It almost made one guy even more happy and one 1,200 baht worse off.
A Flight today produced the brunt of the scoring, with poor old Grant Montgomery missing out with a very good 38. With a bit of ‘ooh la la’ the French boys tipped their berets and made it look easy. Fourth with 39 was Thierry Petremont and his sparring partner Francis Goyen got 3rd, losing on count back to everyone’s favourite Irishman, the ever-smiling Terry ‘red card’ Mangan. A great 40 was the score there. But atop the lot and fighting with John Feehan on Friday for the main prize, was JP Maffray with another terrific 42.
It would be interesting to see if one of those could hold on for the overall prize trophy. To find out, check out this week’s golf report from Lewiinski’s contained elsewhere in the sports pages of this newspaper.
