IPGC golf from The Links
Sunday, January 15, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
Twenty-eight players made the short weekly trip to Pattaya Country Club, and with a strong field the cut for the two divisions was 0-15 and 16+. Due to the heavily (over) watered first fairway, there was a brief discussion whether to declare “lift, clean and place”, but this was deemed unnecessary, a decision which may have cost some players a shot or two as this condition was apparent on a number of fairways, leading to some boggy lies just shy of casual water.
In the top flight, Russell Exley recovered from a slow start to record a level gross back 9, but his 36 points were only good enough for third place, behind Barney Sheedy (37) and Keith Woolley (38).
In the B flight, Andy Galvin and Ted Murphy played some solid golf to record 35 and 37 points respectively. The round of the day however belonged to genial Irishman Joe Peters, who recorded his best ever score in Thailand, carding a gross 82 off his 18 handicap to return a massive 44 points. Not bad for a 71 year old, although needless to say, Joe, it will be a long time before you play off 18 again!
Joe’s card also included a brace of ‘2’s with Jon Batty the only other beneficiary in the ‘2’s comp.
A Flight
1st Keith Woolley (14) 38pts
2nd Barney Sheedy (10) 37pts
3rd Russell Exley (7)36pts
B Flight
1st Joe Peters (18) 44pts
2nd Ted Murphy (22) 37pts
3rd Andy Galvin (20) 35pts
Tuesday, Jan. 17, Laem Chabang – Stableford
Twenty-seven players travelled to Laem Chabang, another firm favorite of the Links group, but with heavy rain during the front 9, one group decided to take advantage of the 9 hole “rain check”, so only 24 returned scores.
The courses for the day were the Mountain and Lake, by far the easiest combination at Laem Chabang, and playing off the white tees at a little over 6,000 yards, the point scores were understandably high, with over half the field returning 30 points or better and the CSS for the day played one below par.
The two flights were split at 0-16 and 17+, with Barney Munnin taking first place in the A flight, shooting gross 82 to return 43 points. Returning Irishman Sean Connolly was second, 6 points behind, edging out John McKenna by a single point.
In the B flight, Ted Murphy got his revenge on Joe Peters for his Sunday score, this time his second consecutive 37 point haul proved good enough to knock Joe back into second place by two points. Andy Galvin again had to settle for third.
There were four ‘2’s, the pot being shared equally by Andy Galvin, Joe McArdle, Frank McGowan and Michael Walsh.
A Flight
1st Barney Munnin (17) 43pts
2nd Sean Connolly (9)37pts
3rd John McKenna (16) 36pts
B Flight
1st Ted Murphy (22) 37pts
2nd Joe Peters (18) 35pts
3rd Andy Galvin (20) 31pts
Thursday, Jan 19, St Andrews – Stableford
The heavy rain before tee-off led to a slight delay on Thursday, but did not deter any of the 29 golfers, although it may have been a contributor to the difficulty of the course, which played much harder than par off the white tees, and with only three players scoring 30 points or better the CSS moved out a full two shots to 76.
In the A flight, handicaps 0-18, Robert Lamond continued his good run of form, with the only level par round of the day, 3 shots ahead of John Chelo. Risto Kopu took third place by way of count back, beating Graham Johnson 14-13 on the back 9.
In the B flight, Seiko Ojima was delighted to take the pot with 30 points. His victory was soured, however, when the following day he realized that he had left his wallet at the course, and spent most of his winnings on a taxi fare to go and retrieve it. Henry Mah and Mikko Antilla completed the places with 27 and 26 points respectively.
The only ‘2’ of the day went to Toni Nichols.
A Flight
1st Robert Lamond (5) 36pts
2nd John Chelo (18) 33pts
3rd Risto Kopu (13) 29pts
B Flight
1st Seiko Ojima (24) 30pts
2nd Henry Mah (23) 27pts
3rd Mikko Antilla (22) 26pts
Note: The Links depart from the hotel on Soi Buakhao at 9.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 10.00am for Pattaya Country Club every Sunday. Sign-up at the hotel or contact Jon on 080 021 1034. A full schedule of courses can be found on the IPGC website www.ipgc.org.
