PSC Golf from the Outback Golf Bar
Monday, March 23, Imperial Lake View – Day 1
What started out as our regular March visit for our 4th Hua Hin Handicap with an anticipated field of around 64 players, turned out to be the largest tour the Outback has hosted, with a whopping field of 84 players, which with wives and girlfriends added up to well over 100 people; and as usual the journey down on Sunday morning was straightforward with no major delays, taking on average just over four hours.
After Black Mountain and Banyan, finding a third course here in Hua Hin at this time of the year is not easy, particularly when the dry season has been as dry as it has. Springfield would not give us the price we wanted so it was shelved until the August tour and Imperial offered the same price as last year, which was very acceptable. Hindsight as we know is a wonderful thing, had we known the course was going to be that dry perhaps we would have changed it but these courses were booked long ago, and it’s not easy to move a big group!
Overall winner Tony Berghagen (right) shakes hands with runner-up Ray Dell.
In its defence, the layout of this course is great and we elected to play from the longer yellow tees to allow for the extra run and bounce. As some players made it clear they did not like this course we shall not be using it in March 2016.
Denver Dezilva won Div A Flight with 37 points, beating George Cullen (36), with Rob Guthrie (35) heading another three players also with 35, namely Brad Jordison, Mike Missler and Steve Mann.
Top scorer of the day was Ray Dell with 42 points, winning him the B Flight ahead of Andy Hancock (38), Russ Rylance (36), Tony Garnett (35) and Edward Bourn (33).
Jim Delves took C Flight with 39 points, from Tony Berghagen (38), new local boy Greg Hill (37), Adrian Shelley (36) and Sugar, who edged a group of four players on 34 to take the last podium place.
Perhaps the surprise of the day was the General himself winning D Flight with 40 points from Jim Connelly (38) and Suzi in third with 36. Bruce McAdam and Rod Howett both scored 33 with Bruce getting the nod on c/b.
There were six ‘2’s from Bob Maloney (8th), Jim Brackett, Phil Mitchell, Ray Dell & Tony Garnett (14th) and Rob Guthrie (17th).
Div A (0-13)
1st Denver Dezilva (13) 37pts
2nd George Cullen (13) 36pts
3rd Rob Guthrie (10) 35pts
4th Brad Jordison (06) 35pts
5th Mike Missler (07) 35pts
Div B (14-17)
1st Dell Ray (14) 42pts
2nd Hancock Andy (17) 38pts
3rd Rylance Russ (14) 36pts
4th Garnett Tony (16) 35pts
5th Bourn Edward (15) 33pts
Div C (18-21)
1st Jim Delves (18) 39pts
2nd Tony Bernhagen (18) 38pts
3rd Greg Hill (20) 37pts
4th Adrian Shelley (21) 36pts
5th Sugar Ray Handford (21) 34pts
Div D (22+)
1st Jack Moseley (24) 40pts
2nd Jim Connelly (23) 38pts
3rd Suzi Lawton (34) 36pts
4th Bruce McAdam (29) 33pts
5th Rod Howett (31) 33pts
Tuesday, March 24, Black Mountain – Day 2
From the moment you drive in, get in the lift and walk straight into the recently redesigned pro shop, you know that this course is a class act. Carts are sensibly priced as are all the items in the shop with nice shirt designs and colours for both men and women as well as all the paraphernalia that any discerning golfer could possibly desire.
The restaurant looks out onto the 18th and 9th greens, as should any well designed clubhouse with a good view of the putting area as well. The staff are smartly dressed in black and gold, serving everyone efficiently and with a smile.
The new look tenth has been finished with a watercourse running all the way down the left hand side so that only the big hitters can take on the drive towards the green; most amateurs have no option but to hit straight down the fairway but the big boys will have to settle for a utility or three wood to avoid the water at the end.
Unlike Lake View, no two-tee start here, so it was a long day on the tee for the General. Playing from the 65 markers, using the slope and rating as intended, Black Mountain is rated pretty tough at 72.2/135, so there are plenty of extra shots available, particularly to the higher handicappers, for the ladies it’s even more severe at 73.3/134.
The course was needless to say in very good condition and good scoring was abundant with no less than 25 players equalling their handicap or better and 8 of them with 40 points or more, which does slightly suggest that the rating/slope is a little out of whack, especially since the higher scores did come from the higher divisions.
Div A was won by Phil Mitchell with 39 points from Tony McDonough (37), who beat Peter LeNoury on c/b with three more tied on 36; Russ Rylance, Bruce Milner and Rob Guthrie.
Barry Copestake headed Div B with a very fine 40 points, beating Dennis Scougal on c/b, with Chris Davisson (39) in third, followed home by Rod Crosswell and Edward Bourn both on 38.
It was a tight finish at the top of Div C as three players all carded excellent 41’s as Bryan Rought edged out William Bishop and Bob Mattes on c/b; fourth was Cooroy visitor Tony Berghagen (40) with Paul Lavender in fifth.
Top score of the day came from the winner of Div D, 42 points from Jim Connelly, with Brendan Cope just two shots back after a stunning 26 on the back nine. They were a long way clear of third placed Bruce McAdam (34) as Dennis Toal and Ron Carter filled the minor places, both on 33.
There were seven ‘2’s from Dino Binlusimoen (3rd), Tony Cobb (8th), Tony McDonough, Chris Voller & Barry Copestake (11th) and Rob Guthrie & Mick Beresford (14th).
Div A (0-15)
1st Phil Mitchell (07) 39pts
2nd Tony McDonough (14) 37pts
3rd Peter LeNoury (13) 37pts
4th Russ Rylance (15) 36pts
5th Bruce Milner (14) 36pts
Div B (16-19)
1st Barry Copestake (19) 40pts
2nd Dennis Scougal (18) 40pts
3rd Chris Davisson (18) 39pts
4th Rod Crosswell (18) 38pts
5th Edward Bourn (16) 38pts
Div C (20-23)
1st Bryan Rought (20) 41pts
2nd William Bishop (21) 41pts
3rd Bob Mattes (23) 41pts
4th Tony Bernhagen (20) 40pts
5th Paul Lavender (20) 38pts
Div D (24+)
1st Jim Connelly (26) 42pts
2nd Brendan Cope (33) 40pts
3rd Bruce McAdam (32) 34pts
4th Dennis Toal (30) 33pts
5th Ron Carter (28) 33pts
Thursday, march 26, Banyan G.C. – Day 3
As can often be the case with some courses, there is a tendency for the tee markers to be brought forward; that happened here last year when the white tees were perhaps only set at about 6000 yards. The true whites should be 6286yds and the true blues are a little far back at 6774yds, the course today was set at short blues at around 6400 – 6500yds but when checked out by two or three different players it was nearer 6650yds, longer than we intended.
Whilst on the subject of course length and of course rating and slope, which go very much hand in hand with length, none of us can quite understand why Black Mountain is rated as a much more difficult course than Banyan as in our experience it should be the other way round. And as for the ladies, well they have no chance here with the red tees at 69.7/114. This may well be a course that we have to consider overriding.
The course was the clear winner of the day with the computer calculating that a mere 32 points was the equivalent of par for the day. The day’s best five scores all came in Div C as William Bishop’s 37 was outstanding to record the top score and win Div C from Carl Luke on 36. They were clear of Tony Berghagen and Phil Payne, both with 34, and Paul Lavender in fifth with 33.
Div A was won by Rob Guthrie (33), who beat Steve Mann on count back, with Martin Grimoldby in third (32) ahead of Mike Missler & Keith Etherington both on 31.
Ray Dell headed Div B with 32 points and Denis Steele (31) was second; then there were four players all with 30, namely Keith Buchanan, Harry Vincenzi, Edward Bourn and John Stafford.
In a low scoring Div D, the big hitting of Brendan Cope must have paid off as his 31 points was enough to win from Jim Connelly and Bob Pearce, both with 30, and Tony Aslett & John Scarlett both with 29.
Div A (0-12)
1st Rob Guthrie (09) 33pts
2nd Stephen Mann (11) 33pts
3rd Martin Grimoldby (04) 32pts
4th Mike Missler (06) 31pts
5th Keith Etherington (06) 31pts
Div B (13-16)
1st Ray Dell (13) 32pts
2nd Denis Steele (16) 31pts
3rd Keith Buchanan (14) 30pts
4th Harry Vincenzi (16) 30pts
5th Edward Bourn (14) 30pts
Div C (17-20)
1st William Bishop (18) 37pts
2nd Carl Luke (17) 36pts
3rd Tony Bernhagen (17) 34pts
4th Phil Payne (19) 34pts
5th Paul Lavender (17) 33pts
Div D (21+)
1st Brendan Cope (29) 31pts
2nd Jim Connelly (22) 30pts
3rd Bob Pearce (21) 30pts
4th Tony Aslett (25) 29pts
5th John Scarlett (22) 29pts
Banyan had kindly given us an early two tee start (9.10am) and also donated a couple of Banyan shirts as near-pin prizes which were won by Brad Jordison and Mick Leighton. General Jack did not play as there was much to do in the way of processing the results; but about 45 minutes after the last players came in the presentation for the entire week commenced with John Lawton reading out a series of amusing stories about the players on tour, all of which carried a fine with the funds being donated to a local charity in Pattaya. Those funds were substantially boosted by a donation from the TIAC boys, who were with us for the last two weeks in Pattaya, the sum of 20,000 baht handed over to Suzi, presented by Al McMullen. We will advise the full amount raised and the charity as soon as possible.
General Jack thanked everybody for their co-operation and for being on time which enabled the tour to run so smoothly and also announced the dates again for the August trip here; Sun 23rd – Fri 28th August.
It was also put to the vote whether we should play either Black Mountain of Banyan twice at this time of the year as many of the other courses do seem to suffer in the dry season, which was passed unanimously with a fairly even split between the two; the other course which may be considered would be Palm Hills.
The overall winner was Tony Berghagen (112pts) from Ray Dell (111pts) with Jim Connelly third on 110pts; these three were five points clear of fourth placed William Bishop.
There were eight ‘2’s from Ross Gogan, William Bishop & Jim Connelly (2nd), Keith Etherington (4th), William Bishop & Mick Leighton (15th) and Tony Aslett & Chris Voller (17th).
Tuesday, March 24, Phoenix – Stableford
Our thanks to Geoff Stimpson and Terry O’Connor who ran the comp for the 13 players here today at Phoenix on Mountain and Lake. Mark Allen comfortably won the day with 37 points from David Bowles (34) with Geoff finishing in third place on 33.
There were no ‘2’s.
1st Mark Allen (16) 37pts
2nd David Bowles (13) 34pts
3rd Geoff Stimpson (06) 33pts
Saturday, March 28, Green Valley – Stableford
We had an excellent turnout today with most of the seventeen players being visitors. Welcome back to Norm Cheetham and also to Rick Forrest, Chris Playforth and Paul Kruining but we said goodbye to Lance Robinson and his group who had been here for a fortnight playing many of the courses in the Pattaya area, all organised and booked on their behalf by the Outback. Some of the Cooroy lads, who were with us in Hua Hin are also on their way home so safe trip to everybody and see you all next time.
Today’s winner was Paul Kruining with an amazing 42 poinsts from Paul Forster in second on 34, with David Bowles, Rick Forrest and Brad Jordison all scoring 33.
There were two ‘2’s from Andrew Fromholtz and Martin Burbidge.
1st Paul Kruining (32) 42pts
2nd Dave Forster (14) 34pts
3rd David Bowles (12) 33pts
Note: The Outback Golf Bar is situated about 6km from Sukhumvit Road along Soi Siam Country. Call Jack on 081 578 1956.
