The Pattaya Golf Society (IPGC) at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
For its pre-Christmas golf event the Pattaya Golf Society visited the beautiful Bangpakong Riverside course to play a stableford competition on Monday, 23rd December. The large field was divided into two flights at fourteen and under, a measure of the quality of the current turnouts, and they found the course in splendid condition with fully grassed fairways and very consistent greens.
Christmas had certainly come early for the group and they responded with some superb golf as almost a third of the field recorded scores of par or better from the white tees, all of 6700 yards.
Scot Iain Wilson continued as the best gross leader of the day with an excellent 75 but his 35 points left him way off the mark. In the top flight Peter Wilson and Andrew Purdie shared third place with 37 points, leaving Marc Jensen and Wichai Tananusorn to share the win with 38 points each.
In the second flight Dave Lehane and Jim Ferris shared second place with 39 points each whilst Dave Plaiter recorded the best points score of the day, forty for the victory.
There were no birdie ‘2’s, a testament to the strong breeze which blew all day and the Booby Bevy went to Helene Lindberg for her low score and it also addressed the family balance after husband Mikael took it last time out.
Rabbi’s non-winners’ draw was won by Mark Cooper and the celebrations went on well into the evening as thoughts turned to the next round at Pleasant Valley, the group’s monthly medal event.
Flynn & Ferris excel
For its penultimate competition of the year the Pattaya Golf Society travelled to a packed Pleasant Valley on Friday, 27th December to play its monthly medal round. The course was in fair condition but as with other visits the fairways were soft and greens on the slow side. Consequently the white tees were in use again.
The large field was divided into two flights cut at fourteen and under with old friends Vic Woolton, Barry Horman and John Evans joining for the first time in many months.
In the second flight the “rabbits” had their day with Michael McGuigan again impressing with net 76 and Murray Edwards getting it all together after some serious lessons with net 74 for third and second place respectively. The winner was the in-form golfer in the second flight, Jim Ferris and his net 69 showed a level of consistency he has been searching for on previous visits.
In the top flight Peter Ditz and Peter Wilson shared second place with fine rounds of net 73 whilst Kiwi Alan Flynn found it all came together after a few frustrating weeks with the third best PGS round of the year, an excellent net 64. One of the group’s most dedicated golfers Alan thoroughly deserved the plaudits of the packed presentation. He also took a share of the ‘2’s pot with Andrew Purdie, Sam McLellan, Peter Ditz and John Evans.
The Booby Bevy went to Dave Lehane for being the first of four golfers to “n/r” and Rabbi’s non-winner’s consolation beer went to Wichai Tananusorn.
A memorable golf day closed with the arrival of the group’s “Captain” David Thomas and his well chosen words immediately hit the mark with the golfers. Mr Len’s spirits have never been higher since January 2009 when his mentor went into exile!
