PSC Golf from the Café Kronborg
Monday, Dec. 19, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
Once more we had a very good field signed up for the popular but testing Mountain Shadow layout and most of the 31 golfers assembled at Café Kronborg to complete registration for the day’s competition. We were very happy to welcome back Volker Buley from Germany and also Michelle Sancillo from Italy.
Peter Hammond (left) receives the 2011 Xmas Fayre Trophy from Dave Richardson.
As our tee-off time was re-scheduled due to the course “losing” our booking, we departed the Kronny 6 minutes early at 0809 hrs. Fortunately The Admiral phoned the course the day before to confirm our original booking of 1000 hrs thus the new time of 0920 hrs was established, justifying the necessity to make the phone call to all courses prior to playing there.
Just a 46 minute journey saw us arrive at the course with time to spare and in glorious weather conditions our first group got away at exactly the scheduled time. The course was looking and playing good although some of the fairways were a little dry in parts, but the greens were in great shape and as usual quite slick at times.
There were no other groups in front of us so the round was leisurely but with no delays and after a couple of drink stops the round was completed in four hours and fifteen minutes.
There were 2 flights with A Flight for handicaps 0 to 20 and B Flight for 21 and over. There were rewards for nearest the pin on all four par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens.
Yours truly (21 point back nine) finally sank a few putts and won the A Flight with 37 points on a count back from Peter Hammond (16 point back nine), with the consistent Niels Hansen in third place with 36 points. A very close count back for fourth & fifth spots saw Michelle Sancillo (5 for 3 on the 14th) beat Ken Bernek (6 for 2 on the 14th) with both golfers having 33 points.
Thirty two points was good enough for Martyn Topham to take out the B Flight, just 1 point ahead of Susan Gaarde in second place. There were 4 golfers tied on 30 points for the last three podium finishes and J C Lhoste (13 points last 6 holes) finished third from Kjeld Ravn (9 points last 6 holes), with Jan Lovgreen (15 point back nine) in fifth spot. Veteran Hugh O’Donnell was the unlucky one as his 30 points contained a 14 point back nine.
A Flight (0-20)
1st Peter Blackburn (12) 37pts
2nd Peter Hammond (19) 37pts
3rd Niels Hansen (15) 36pts
4th Michelle Sancillo (8) 33pts
5th Ken Bernek (17) 33pts
B Flight (21+)
1st Martyn Topham (31) 32pts
2nd Susan Gaarde (25) 31pts
3rd J C Lhoste (24) 30pts
4th Kjeld Ravn (22) 30pts
5th Jan Lovgreen (24) 30pts
Near Pins: 5th – Niels Hansen; 8th – Mike Winfield; 15th – Walter Baechli; 17th – Susan Gaarde
Long Putts: 9th – Hugh O’Donnell; 18th – Kenny Chung
The Compass Cap (worst score on the day) was won by Arne Fuglholt and Deefa the Dog had a walk around with his master, Hunter and collected many donations to charity from our generous Café Kronborg group.
Wednesday, Dec. 21, The Emerald – Stableford
After several cancellations and a couple of last minute additions, as seems to be the norm just recently for Wednesdays, we ended up with a field of 16 golfers for the day’s outing at the testing Emerald layout. We were happy to welcome Tropical Bert’s regular John Marritt who we hadn’t seen play with us for a while.
Candy (Emerald Boss Lady), Peter Blackburn & Bo Cardwell.
Departing the Kronny right on time at 0815 hrs we headed south down Highway 3 and in 45 minutes we were there. Things seemed to be fairly quiet and in fact we were called to the first tee just about immediately and our first group got away 40 minutes ahead of schedule at 0920 hrs.
The weather was fine with overcast skies but no chance of any rain and a fairly stiff breeze helped to keep the temperature down somewhat. Once more the course was in fairly good shape and although the greens were in terrific condition, many of the fairways were dry and hard in parts. With no-one in front of us it was another leisurely and enjoyable round of golf which was completed in four hours and twenty five minutes.
There was just the one flight on the day plus rewards for nearest the pin on all four of the par threes.
Thriving in her advanced stage of pregnancy Bo Cardwell was the only player to play to handicap or better and easily won the day with 37 points. A three-way count back to decide the next three spots resulted in Jan Lovgreen (21 point back nine) finishing second with Walter Baechli (20 point back nine) third and Mike Allidi (15 point back nine) in fourth place, all having 33 points. Bjarne Kjaer ended up in fifth spot with 32 points.
1st Bo Cardwell (36) 37pts
2nd Jan Lovgreen (24) 33pts
3rd Walter Baechli (17) 33pts
4th Mike Allidi (1) 33pts
5th Bjarne Kjaer (19) 32pts
Near Pins: 5th – Niels Hansen; 13th – Bo Cardwell; 15th – Paul Cardwell
Thursday, Dec. 22, Bangpakong – Stableford
This was the day of the annual Café Kronborg Xmas Fayre Trophy and the choice of venue this year was the classy Bangpakong Riverside Country Club. We had a very good field of thirty participants of which most assembled at Café Kronborg in preparation for the lengthy journey.
We welcomed Bob Akapita from Gove in the Northern Territory of Australia, Jerry Dobbs from Western Australia, Stu Rifkin from a spell, Scott Lobenwein also from Australia, Warren Holland & Alan Reader, from The Golf Club and Miss Yang from Korea.
We had a really good run out of Pattaya and along Highway 7, arriving at the course just 65 minutes later and it appeared that we would have plenty of time to prepare as the course was quite busy. It was Sports Day and excellent value at 1050 baht including Green & Caddy Fee.
We sensibly sent our 2 threesomes off first and the first group of four teed off just after 1000 hrs, right on schedule. Once more the weather was great and not too hot with a nice gentle breeze.
The course was as ever in great shape although there appeared to have been considerable over-watering on some of the fairways. I must comment on the greens though as we have rarely seen better anywhere – they were superb!
It was a fairly slow round with a few delays and we finished in four hours & thirty minutes.
Just one flight today as everyone received a gift as is the custom on this special day. There were rewards for nearest the pin on all four par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens.
There were some terrific scores on the day and a count back for the 2011 Xmas Fayre Trophy saw Peter Hammond (26 point back nine) take out the honours from Mike Gosden (23 point back nine), with both golfers having a great 43 points. We thank Pattaya Sports Club for kindly donating the tropy. There was another count back for third & fourth places with 2 players having 40 points: Alain Taddei (13 point last 6 holes) edged out Tony Berry (12 points last 6 holes). Dr Paul Cardwell finished in fifth place with a creditable 39 points.
1st Peter Hammond (19) 43pts
2nd Mike Gosden (11) 43pts
3rd Alain Taddei (18) 40pts
4th Tony Berry (11) 40pts
5th Paul Cardwell (16) 39pts
Near Pins: 4th – Michael Catillon; 7th – Alain Taddei; 13th – Rob Brown; 16th – Jerry Dobbs
Long Putts: 9th – Bob Akapita; 18th – Mike Gosden
From ‘The Admiral’ & myself, and the other Kronny helpers, we would like to wish a very Happy New Year to everyone and hope to see more of you in the future.
Please note that Café Kronborg Golf encourages all golfers, beginners, casuals and ladies. The PSC and USGA maximum handicaps allowed are 36 for men and 40 for ladies and we welcome all newcomers. For more information please call Peter on 080 635 1386 or Dave on 083 602 2117.
