IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
A large group of Pattaya Golf Society members visited the Silky Oak course at Green Valley to play a stableford competition on Monday, 5th September and found the course suffering a little from the excessive rains recently and the greens sorely in need of a cut. However, always a challenge, the course was relatively empty and the group enjoyed a fine day.
Tony Thorne had been tempted to give the course another chance after scathing comments on his first visit in December and found that “knowing what to expect” helped him this time to a level par score for fourth place, with Tim Knight coming through his first visit with 37 points for third place.
The gaffer, Mr Len, has played the course half a dozen times now and he is still “fortified” by his first two returns there of forty-two points, and he almost repeated the feat with 41 points this time. However he was booted into runner up place by a fantastic performance from the doyen of PNG’s “Mount Hagen Mongrels GS”, Brendan Gilsenan. At the turn his moderate eighteen points were elevated to the status of “legend” by a finishing nine of 25 points, giving him 43 points for the win, equalling the highest score of the year within the group.
Needless to say he also recorded a birdie ‘2’ to join Larry Bland, Evan Miller, Tony Thorne and newbie Phil McClure in a share of the ‘2’s pot whilst the best gross score of the day was recorded by Wichai Tananusorn, his eighty disguising the fact that he was two under the card after a handful of holes.
The Booby Bevy went to Masashi Iizumi for blowing away a chance after nine holes when his twenty points offered promise of more but a loss of rhythm saw him finish with only twelve more, and a cool beer of course.
Silky Oak? Love it or hate it? Ask Brendan Gilsenan.
Speed checks at Bangpra
On Friday, 9th September the Pattaya Golf Society visited Bangpra to play a stableford competition on the well presented course. The fairways are showing signs of run again and will be welcomed by shorter hitters and the greens were so quick that putting from above the hole was a lottery. The only way to successfully lag a put would be to strike the ball with the putter head cover still attached! “Touch” golfers would come into their own this day.
In fourth place was Evan Millar with thirty well earned points, on a day when his country welcomed the Rugby World Cup. Sharing second on 31 were Aussies Brendan Gilsenan and Phil Knight whilst the best gross of the day, eighty-two, was set by the winner Wichai Tananusorn. His thirty-three points was an excellent performance on a course in this condition and testimony to the fact that he could finish the hole from the front of the green.
There were no birdie ‘2’s and the Booby Bevy went to Ronnie Ramsay Snr after setting records for the number of balls lost in water and the number of scratched holes on the card.
Bangpra is well managed and welcoming and is such a fine challenge for the golfers, especially in this condition.
