PSC golf from the Café Kronborg
Monday, January 23, Bangpakong – Stableford
As opposed to last Monday’s late start, this time we had an earlier than normal tee time booked at Bangpakong and I was a bit worried that some would not realize this, but I was underestimating the ‘Kronny’ crew. Four late cancellations brought the field down to 36 starters so I had to shuffle the groups around somewhat but all were assembled at Café Kronborg eagerly awaiting the chance to once more play at the classy Bangpakong Riverside Golf Club. We welcomed back Mick O’Connor from a few weeks in the UK and newcomer Noboru Okabe from Japan.
Upon arriving at the course we were soon called to the first tee and the first of our 9 four-balls got away eight minutes later than scheduled at 0930 hrs in absolutely glorious weather conditions. As usual the course was in perfect shape with lush fairways and firm and true greens and a I had a hunch that there would be some very good scores on the day – I was to be proved correct.
Rob Brown, The Admiral & Jesper Rasmussen.
The going was slow however with many groups in front of us and there were several lengthy waits on a couple of the par threes so after a couple of enforced drink breaks our round was completed in four hours & forty minutes.
Rob Brown scorched around the course with 73 off the stick and won the A Flight for the second Monday in a row with 44 points. A count back was needed to decide second and third spots with Andre Van Dyk (25 point back nine) edging out Richard Kubicki (22 point back nine), both having 43 points. Takeshi Hakozaki finished fourth with 39 points and with three golfers on 38 points another count back saw Mike Allidi (22 point back nine) finish fifth with Dr Paul Cardwell (19 point back nine, 11 points on last 6 holes) taking sixth spot. Yours truly was the unlucky one with 19 points on the back nine, 10 points on the last 6 holes.
Mike Gosden, The Admiral & Jan Lovgreen.
B Flight was won by Jesper Rasmussen with 41 points, just 1 point ahead of Jerry Dobbs in second place. There were three players on 37 points and a count back gave third place to Dave Richardson (19 point back nine, 12 points on last 6 holes) with Bo Cardwell (19 point back nine, 10 points on last 6 holes) finishing fourth and in fifth place was Kjeld Ravn (19 point back nine, 9 points on last 6 holes). Four people on 35 points needed yet another count back to determine sixth spot and Graham Buckingham with 19 points on the back nine beat Rita Zoebeli (18 points on the back nine) and Mike Herridge & Bjarne Kjaer, both having 16 points on the back nine.
A Flight (0-19)
1st Rob Brown (9) 44pts
2nd Andre Van Dyk (17) 43pts
3rd Richard Kubicki (15) 43pts
4th Takeshi Hakozaki (15) 39pts
5th Mike Allidi (1) 38pts
6th Paul Cardwell (16) 38pts
B Flight (20+)
1st Jesper Rasmussen (20) 41pts
2nd Jerry Dobbs (24) 40pts
3rd Dave Richardson (24) 37pts
4th Bo Cardwell (32) 37pts
5th Kjeld Ravn (22) 37pts
6th Graham Buckingham (22) 35pts
Near Pins: 4th – Andre Van Dyk; 7th – Walter Baechli; 13th – Jesper Rasmussen; 16th – Mike Herridge
Long Putts: 9th – Paul Cardwell, 18th – Richard Kubicki
Having had a golf lesson from Tarquin MacManus last weekend, Dick Braimbridge was no longer favourite to win the Compass Cap and sure enough it was Ulla Ravn who was awarded the (not so) coveted prize.
Thursday, January 26, Royal Lakeside – Stableford
There was just one Aussie, a Pommie/Aussie and a Kiwi/Aussie in the field of 36 to compete at Royal Lakeside Golf Club on Australia Day, 2012. Assembling at Café Kronborg we handed out welcomes to Eric Anderson and Finn Klarkov from Denmark and reassured Doug Maiko that the golf was on today and not the day before when he had presented himself at 0800 hrs.
We arrived at the course and unlike the time when we were here last month there was practically no wind and it was shaping up to be a fine but hot day. The weather in this part of Thailand is of course terrific at this time of year and the course was in excellent shape although a few of the fairways were fairly dry in parts but the greens were firm & true and fairly slick at times.
The consensus of opinion is that the course is considerably tougher than it was before and this was reflected in the scoring as only one golfer played better than his handicap. The going was a bit slow once more and our round was completed in four hours & twenty five minutes.
The only 100% Aussie in the field Mike Gosden celebrated his National Day by winning the A Flight with 36 points and with 3 golfers on 33 points a count back was required to decide the next 3 places. Michael Catillon (17 point back nine & 12 points on the last 6 holes) finished second ahead of Ken Bernek (17 point back nine & 11 points on the last 6 holes) in third place and Niels Hansen (14 point back nine) finished fourth. Another count back was needed with 2 players on 32 points and Gordon Uvanille (14 point back nine, 9 points last 6 and 6 points on the last 3 holes) finished fifth with yours truly (14 point back nine, 9 points last 6 and 5 points on the last 3 holes) ended up in sixth spot.
The best score of the day was Jan Lovgreen’s 38 points which enabled him to win the B Flight, with Mike Winfield (19 point back nine) taking second spot on a count back from Kjeld Ravn (18 point back nine) in third place, both with 36 points. The winner of the day’s Fashion Award, Bjarne Kjaer was fourth with 35 points and in another count back on 32 points Carole Kubicki (15 point back nine) finished fifth with Rita Zoebeli (13 point back nine) in sixth place.
A Flight (0-20)
1st Mike Gosden (11) 36pts
2nd Michael Catillon (19) 33pts
3rd Ken Bernek (18) 33pts
4th Niels Hansen (15) 33pts
5th Gordon Uvanille (14) 32pts
6th Peter Blackburn (13) 32pts
B Flight (21+)
1st Jan Lovgreen (24) 38pts
2nd Mike Winfield (21) 36pts
3rd Kjeld Ravn (22) 36pts
4th Bjarne Kjaer (21) 35pts
5th Carole Kubicki (23) 32pts
6th Rita Zoebeli (24) 32pts
Near Pins: 3rd – Carole Kubicki, 6th – Niels Hansen, 12th – Carole Kubicki, 15th – Walter Baechli
Long Putts: 9th – Doug Maiko, 18th – Mike Gosden
Alas, the lessons from the Pro and an hour at the driving range the day before were not enough for Dick Braimbridge to avoid the Compass Cap (worst score on the day) but I’m sure it won’t be long before Dick shows improvement. Deefa the Dog was paraded by his master, Hunter and collected many donations to charity from our generous Café Kronborg group.
