PSC golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Jan. 23, Khao Kheow B & C – Stabelford
The Chinese New Year (the year of the dragon) at Khao Kheow today contributed to large numbers of golfers on all three nines, resulting in a slow pace of play for the 22 Outbackers, playing the B & C nines from the yellow tees.
The day’s top score came from the Sugarman with 36pts to win Div B, from Suzi Lawton who beat Brian Maddox on count back, both with 35pts; whilst Steve Mann’s 35pts was enough to win Div A from Owen Walkley, who headed three all tied on 34pts, including James Sheffield, playing off scratch and Steve Plant.
Friday podium placers (from left): Campbell Potts, John Stafford, Graham Woollett and Tim Knight.
There were two ‘2’s from Owen Walkley (hole C8) & Sugar Ray (hole B8).
Div A (0-15)
1st Steve Mann (10/Hi9.9) 35pts
2nd Owen Walkley (10) 34pts
3rd James Sheffield (0/Hi0.1) 34pts
Div B (16+)
1st Sugar Ray Handford (19/Hi17.7) 36pts
2nd Suzi Lawton (18/Hi19.6) 35pts
3rd Brian Maddox (22/Hi20.2) 35pts
Monday, Jan. 23, Burapha C & D – Stableford
A good turnout here with 33 Outbackers playing the white tees on C & D, produced some very fine scoring in all three divisions. Paul Bourke took Div A with 41pts, from Andy Butterworth and Neil Lavery both on 37 with the Capt’, still labouring with his game, towards the back on 28.
There was another 41pts in Div C, this time from Graham Woollett, for which he will be cut 2 shots from his Handicap Index and he was way ahead of Wendall McDonald with 36 and Keith Meehan on 35.
The best score of the day was 43pts in Div B, achieved by Bernie Stafford, to win easily from Pete Stonebridge (38pts) and Tom Parker (36pts).
There were four ‘2’s; two on hole C5 from John Cunningham & Ed Turner and two on C8 from Gerry O’Dwyer & Pete Stonebridge.
Div A (0-14)
1st Paul Bourke (9/Hi9.4) 41pts
2nd Andy Butterworth (12/Hi11.4) 37pts
3rd Neil Lavery (13/Hi12.7) 37pts
Div B (15-19)
1st Bernie Stafford (16/Hi15.1) 43pts
2nd Pete Stonebridge (18/Hi17.4) 38pts
3rd Tom Parker (19/Hi18.2) 36pts
Div C (20+)
1st Graham Woollett (27/Hi25.7) 41pts
2nd Wendall McDonald (35/Hi33) 36pts
3rd Keith Meehan (21/Hi19.8) 35pts
Tuesday, Jan. 24, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
With regular Tuesday organiser Chad (Barry Chadbourn) recovering from recent major surgery, it was his friend and Outbacker, Nigel Cannon who took over the running on this fine Tuesday morning.
On arrival at PCC we were greeted by the friendly staff and caddies whose first question was, “How’s Chad?”
The weather was fine but rather hot and the course was in satisfactory order – and not too busy so away on time with a four hour round.
There were 12 playing today – it should have been fifteen but three ‘forgot’ to arrive or telephone, which always make life hard for the organisers but interestingly enough, in amongst the twelve were eight different nationalities!
Welcome back to Owen Lloyd with his delightful lady, On, a former caddy at Burapha and also to first timer here at PCC, Ed Turner, who is over here from the States for a couple of weeks of golf.
Showing that responsibility for the day’s organization did not weigh too heavily, in top spot was Nigel Cannon (22) with 37 points. In second place was the jovial Irishman John White (23) with 35 and completing the trio on the podium was the aforementioned Owen Lloyd (4) with 34.
There were no ‘2’s.
1st Nigel Cannon (22/Hi23.2) 37pts
2nd John White (23/Hi23.4) 35pts
3rd Paul Smets (18/Hi19.1) 35pts
Wednesday, Jan. 25, Crystal Bay A & B – Stableford
An unexpected large turnout at Crystal Bay, which prompted a couple of earlier calls in the week to increase the number of tee times. When the 38 Outbackers arrived, it caused utter confusion for the starters, who had inadvertently written the group booking name down as “Mr. Bob”, little did they know that The Golf Club had about 10 groups booked and also have a “Mr. Bob” so the 10 groups became 20 as they tried to squeeze everybody onto the course.
Needless to say it was a painfully slow round not helped by the fact that our first group had to play behind a group where one player had taken four shots to move the ball about 80yds, having managed to hit three different trees in the process, head in hands; General Jack got the feeling it was just going to be a bad day at the office.
Five and a quarter hours later, he wasn’t wrong as the scorecards were hurried back to the Outback, with presentation taking place as late as six o’clock
It is a shame that one of the favourite courses in this part of Thailand is being allowed to deteriorate in this way, as many of the bunker surrounds require some TLC and much of the watering system is clearly not working and/or leaking, producing many dry areas as well as wet un-mowable soggy patches. The greens have lost their conformity as a patchwork of different grasses have started to take over, making the putting extremely inconsistent.
Nevertheless, ‘Hoggy’ (Gary Hogg) put all that aside as he shot a very fine gross 74, which included three birdies in his back nine, to notch up a stableford score of 40pts. Dennis Pelly (35) and Paul Greenaway (34) filled the minor places in Div A, whilst Phil Waite took Div B with 37 from Noddy (35) and Tim Knight (35) headed Div C from Stuart McKenzie (33).
There were three ‘2’s in Div A; from Gary Hogg on holes B4 & B6 and John Cunningham also on hole B6 and two ‘2’s in Div B; from Wayne Cotterill (A8) and Steve Plant (B6).
Div A (0-11)
1st Gary Hogg (6/Hi7.2) 40pts
2nd Dennis Pelly (10/Hi10.8) 35pts
3rd Paul Greenaway (7/Hi8.2) 34pts
Div B (12-17)
1st Phil Waite (13/Hi13.6) 37pts
2nd Noddy Moyle (17/Hi16.8) 35pts
3rd John Locke (14/Hi13.9) 32pts
Div C (18+)
1st Tim Knight (20/Hi19.6) 35pts
2nd Stuart McKenzie (18/Hi18.4) 33pts
3rd Sunanta Duangwaw (38/Hi36) 32pts
Thursday, Jan. 26, Treasure Hill – Stableford
Treasure Hill today, all 15 of us out early and what condition this course was in – you couldn’t get a bad lie here – the fairways were absolutely lush and the greens just tremendous.
I had the pleasure of playing with Arab Russell today, playing a match versus a couple of Irish lads, Paulie & John; after the Capt’ had blobbed the first six holes it was time for the Arab to produce some Russian beer which made all the difference, as he (the Capt’) managed to score 15 points on the back nine and offer his playing partner (Arab) some light relief from the heavy burden he’d been carrying on the front nine. Sorry Paulie, it now seems my wallet has an extra 400 Baht in it, never mind you still have time to challenge me again, before you go home.
The rest of the team had a great time but it was the Arab that got first on a count back from Paulie O’Mahoney just to rub in the bad news, Dave Collier (33) in third and David Davies (34) fourth.
There was just one ‘2’ from Paulie O’Mahony on the 6th hole.
1st Arab Russell (28/Hi23.7) 36pts
2nd Paulie O’Mahony (11/Hi8.5) 36pts
3rd Dave Collier (33/Hi28) 35pts
Friday, Jan. 27, Green Valley – Stableford
Two ‘Stafford Terriers’ topped the first and second divisions as 32 Outbackers enjoyed the delights of Green Valley, which was in excellent condition.
John shared the top score of the day (40pts) to win Div B with a tenacious round of golf to win by five from Pete Stonebridge (35) and Pottsy (34) who beat the Sugarman on count back, whilst Bernie won Div A, in a lower than normal scoring premier division, with 35pts from Phil Waite and Cottee both on 34. The other 40 pointer came from Tim Knight, winner of Div C, beating Keith Meehan with 38pts and Woolley with 35.
Welcome to a couple of Outback newbies, namely Mark Prytz and Stephanie & Greg Radmund and welcome back to Charlie Ayres, who we haven’t seen for some time.
There were four ‘2’s from Bernie Stafford (hole 9) and three more on the 12th from Messrs Sugar, Noddy & Pottsy.
Div A (0-12)
1st Bernie Stafford (12/Hi13) 35pts
2nd Phil Waite (12/Hi13) 34pts
3rd Wayne Cotterell (12/Hi12.8) 34pts
Div B (13-18)
1st John Stafford (18/Hi18.4) 40pts
2nd Pete Stonebridge (17/Hi16.9) 35pts
3rd Campbell Potts (18/Hi17.6) 34pts
Div C (19+)
1st Tim Knight (20/Hi19.6) 40pts
2nd Keith Meehan (20/Hi19.9) 38pts
3rd Graham Woollett (24/Hi23.7) 35pts
