PSC Golf from The Growling Swan
Thursday, Jan. 3, Bangpakong – Stableford
This being our first outing of the year it was terrific to see that we had a full field of 32, and in fact had to apologize to several players who were too late in putting their names down which resulted in them missing out. People seem to “come out of the woodwork” when they see that we are playing the classy Bangpakong Riverside Golf Course and surprisingly there are still some who do not make the journey as the trip is “too long”, but for the true keen golfer it is well worth the extra few minutes.
We were happy to welcome back my very good friend Frankie Sharratt from Derbyshire, UK and also from the same county Colin Faraday playing with us for the first time. Also playing with us for the first time but no stranger to many of us were Carole & Richard Kubicki from Cyprus & UK, terrific to have this nice couple with us.
Bernie McCart, Scott Leszynski & Alain Taddei.
Also playing again with us again and welcome back was the PSC Social Chairman Nigel Cannon, who enjoys his occasional outing with our Growling Swan crew, and last but not least were many visiting “Growling Swans Delinquents” members who were as follows: Tony “Spaggoni” Olcorn from Brisbane plus Tristan Freeman, Gary Williams, Robert Allen, Vince “Vinnie” Romero, Shane “Jockey” Young, Ernie Picken & Russell Calcutt, all from Melbourne, Australia.
Just about everyone was organized for the slightly earlier departure and we managed to leave the GS in 3 very full mini vans at 8.23 am and headed off up number 7. The traffic was quite sparse leaving Pattaya and once more we made the journey in the excellent time of 60 minutes and after checking in we arrived at the first tee to find no-one directly in front of us and the golf course did not appear to be too busy, quite surprising for this venue and the time of year.
The weather was fantastic, not too hot with a bit of wind and our first four-ball teed off 3 minutes ahead of our booked time at 9.57 am. As usual the course was pristine with lush fairways and beautifully maintained greens and we proceeded at a very good pace with no necessity to take a drinks break and our first nine was completed in a little under 2 hours.
This pace was maintained during the second nine and after eventually catching up with the groups in front with four holes to go we still managed to complete the round in the excellent time of three hours & fifty four minutes. It was a fabulous day’s golf on a great course with terrific company – “It doesn’t get much better than this”.
We were able to have 2 grades with six podium spots in each. A Grade was for handicaps 0 to 23 and B Grade for 24 and over. We had nearest the pins on all the par threes and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
Before presentations I wished everyone present a very Happy New Year & also publicly thanked Mike “Hunter” Gosden for being acting Golf Manager the previous Thursday while I was “doing it tough” at Amata Springs.
It was very tight at the top of A Grade with 5 golfers all having 39 points so of course count backs were the go which resulted in the winner being declared as Alain “Inspector Clouseau” Taddei (23 point back nine). In second spot was Ken “Let’s hear it for” Bernek (20 point back nine) with Mike Allidi (19 point back nine & 71 gross) finishing third. In fourth place was Jayson Schembri (17 point back nine & 12 points on the last 6 holes) and finishing fifth was newcomer Colin Farady (17 point back nine & 11 points on the last 6 holes).
With 2 golfers having 38 points yet another count back was needed to determine sixth place which went to Frenchman Michael Catillon (18 point back nine) and the unlucky Richard “Tricky Dicky” Kubicki just missed out.
Much easier to determine the winner of B Grade with Bernie McCart having 39 points, four points ahead of Fred Dineley (19 point back nine) with Vince “Vinnie” Romeo (17 point back nine) finishing third. There were 3 players on 33 points so the count back decided that fourth place went to Sandy “Leiperfrog” Leiper (23 point back nine) and Wendy Bernek (16 point back nine) was fifth with Gary “Sportscene” Monley (14 point back nine) fifth.
A Flight (0-23)
1st Alain Taddei (17) 39pts
2nd Ken Bernek (15) 39pts
3rd Mike Allidi (2) 39pts
4th Jayson Schembri (19) 39pts
5th Colin Faraday (18) 39pts
6th Michael Catillon (18) 38pts
B Flight (24+)
1st Bernie McCart (30) 39pts
2nd Fred Dineley (29) 35pts
3rd Vince Romeo 35pts
4th Sandy Leiper (35) 33pts
5th Wendy Bernek (31) 33pts
6th Gary Monley 33pts
Near Pins: 4th – Tristan Freeman, 7th – Carole Kubicki, 13th – Gary Williams, 16th – Andrew Allen
Long Putts: 9th – Richard Kubicki, 18th – Alain Taddei
The Growling Swan NAGA Award, (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was well won by Scott “Moneybags” Leszynski who whilst attempting to avoid the presentation by sneaking outside for a smoke (reminds us of another American golfer in Pattaya) was gracious in accepting the cap when hauled back into the restaurant. His “sneaky” attempt at avoidance resulted in a double fine for him but to his credit he had a big smile on his face the whole time.
Big Ken paraded Deefa the Dog and many donations were collected for the needy in Pattaya from our ever generous Growling Swan Crew. Back at The Growling Swan the Aussie cold, low priced beer was flowing and with a big crew back there the atmosphere was great.
Note: Growling Swan Golf welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan (formerly The Bunker Bar) in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 am with transport departing at 8.30 am. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn@ gmail.com.
