PSC golf with the Outback Golf Bar
Monday, May 23, Burapha C & D – Stableford
Twenty-seven Outbackers played the C and D loops from the white tees, in a day of contrasting scores from the sublime to the ridiculous; a brilliant 42 points from the flamboyant Greig Ritchie at the top to a miserable 19 from Arab Russell at the bottom, although he (Arab) could be forgiven for playing in a moon boot.
However, there were good reasons for the score spread; as the rough in most cases was extra brutal, especially on the back nine; if you could find the narrow fairways you could score, if you didn’t, you could do little more than chop it out. Even the Capt’ found it tough going with a reasonable score on the front but not being able to hit the fairway on the back (nine) made for hard day at the office.
Friday winners: (from right) Robert Ford, Graham (the fish) Fletcher, and Clinton Kimber.
It really was a great day for golf though with a little cloud cover to keep the heat off and no rain, everyone was around in under 4 hours today which made for pleasant golf.
Arab’s cavalier brother, Lumpy, was pipped at the post in Div A by the big but sometimes wayward hitting, Owen Walkley, both with 37, as Steve Mann got the better of his good mate Rosco, both on 35. As mentioned previously, Greig took the top spot in Div B, five clear of another Greg, this time Hill, who was having his last game before returning to Aus.
There were three ‘2’s from Greig Ritchie, Barry McIntosh & Lumpy Russell.
Div A (0–15)
1st Owen Walkley (11) 37pts
2nd Lumpy Russell (14) 37pts
3rd Steve Mann (9) 35pts
4th Rosco Langoulant (15) 35pts
Div B (16+)
1st Greig Ritchie (20) 42pts
2nd Greg Hill (23) 37pts
3rd Barry McIntosh (18) 32pts
4th Ivan Plunkett (20) 31pts
Tuesday, May 24, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
A good field of 21 Outbackers at Pattaya’s nearest course were away well ahead of time, leaving the way behind for Seamus’s birthday bash (from the TRGG group) following on behind, other than that, players were generally pretty scant.
The course is going through its usual maintenance programme with the greens presenting themselves in varying states of repair; some have been just hollow tined and some have been sanded as well, and others are in different stages of recovering from earlier work. All in all a bit of a hotchpotch, which is probably why there were no ‘2’s today.
David Day’s 38 points won Div A, keeping out the course specialist, Mike Allidi, who had to settle for second with 36 (gross 73), and his mate, Jan Eriksen was third with 33; and oddly enough, all three of them played in the same group! Chad (35pts) was a little surprised to find himself still at the top of Div B after wiping the 15th and 16th as Dave Earthrowl continued his run of form, taking second with 34.
Div A (0–18)
1st David Day (16) 38pts
2nd Mike Allidi (1) 36pts
3rd Jan Eriksen (16) 33pts
4th Chris Fletcher (12) 32pts
Div B (19+)
1st Barry Chadbourn (19) 35pts
2nd David Earthrowl (21) 34pts
3rd Doug Chalkley (22) 33pts
4th Andrew Makara (27) 33pts
Wednesday, May 25, Phoenix M & L – Stableford
The Outback Bar travelled to Phoenix for only the second time in many months with 16 players in the competition and four guests from Hong Kong. We were met by plenty of thunder and lightning but fortunately when we teed off most of the weather went around us leaving ideal conditions for the rest of the round.
Phoenix is one of the courses that we certainly look forward to playing but must admit we were disappointed in the condition of the course, the greens were particularly bumpy and haven’t recovered from their coring and sanding. The rough has not been cut recently and was unplayable in some places even within a metre of the fairway.
A good score from Darren Norris (37pts) headed the field, with Tim Knight and Steve Smith both with 36.
For the second day running, there were no ‘2’s: – maybe the state of the greens?
1st Darren Norris (14) 37pts
2nd Tim Knight (26) 36pts
3rd Steve Smith (21) 36pts
4th Barry McIntosh (18) 34pts
5th Owen Walkley (11) 34pts
Monday, May 27, Khao Kheow B & C – Stableford
Twenty-nine Outbackers hit the B and C loops today and as it was raining, the Capt’, after some consideration, made it ‘lift clean and place’ on the fairways even though carts were allowed on the fairway.
As per usual, there were no scores that tore up the course however we did have some funny stuff going on during the day. In Western Australia there are a number of popular water sporting events happening from time to time, like the famous America’s Cup yacht race, there is a super surf life-saving and surf-boarding event which takes place down in the Margaret River area at Bell’s Beach, or you can take all sorts of cruises up the Swan River to do wine tasting at Houghton’s winery, but swimming on a golf course I have never seen before.
You may have heard of a film called “A Fish called Wanda”, well we have our own fish, aptly named Graham “the Fish” Fletcher aka Graham “the Fly swallower” Fletcher. If you are looking for a good time on the golf course I highly recommend a game with the said person, it does wonders for your putting even up to 3 holes later when you can’t see the line for the tears in your eyes.
Somehow he managed to completely submerse himself underwater as he lost his balance adjacent to the green on C1, one minute he was there and one minute later he’d gone for a swim. If that wasn’t enough, whilst continuing to play in his soggy clothes, he was seen on the tee of C7 bent double, trying to cough up a fly he’d just swallowed. Thanks mate for a great day out!
But in all seriousness it really was a good day for golf, it rained maybe for two holes then stayed overcast so it wasn’t too hot. Top scorer was Clinton Kember (36pts), which must be regarded as pretty good round here and the 35 points from second placed, Paul Greenaway, wasn’t too shabby either, even if he doesn’t agree with the new PSC drop zone rule. Owen Walkley also did well with 35 and three back was Frank Nottle with 32.
Robert Ford beat John O’Keefe on count-back, both on 34, to head Div B, with Pottsy prowling a couple back and Mark Kembrey, here one of his brief R & R trips, was in fourth with 30.
One regular Outbacker who didn’t play too well wrote on his score card “Please give me a shot back sir’ but special requests like this should be accompanied with the appropriate sum of money, cos money talks in all languages.
There were only two ‘2’s, both coming on the Island green (B8), one by the Capt’ and the other by Neil Lavery (playing in the same group). The Capt’s was 18 inches away but Neil’s was only 6 inches and he (Neil) also won all four caddy skins for his girl, not a bad day out for her.
Div A (0-15)
1st Clinton Kimber (14) 36pts
2nd Paul Greenaway (10) 35pts
3rd Owen Walkley (11) 35pts
4th Frank Nottle (11) 32pts
Div B (16+)
1st Robert Ford (18) 34pts
2nd John O’ Keefe (16) 34pts
3rd Campbell Potts (20) 32pts
4th Mark Kembrey (18) 30pts
