The Tropical Golf Group
Tuesday, Nov. 29, Pattana – Monthly Mug
This promised to be a very exciting day as it was to be a stroke event for the Monthly Mug and also the culmination of all the play throughout the month, for the ‘Golfer of The Month’ award.
The test for the day was supposed to be the A & B nines at Pattana but when we arrived at the start we were told we were to play the C & A Nines instead, in that order.
C Nine is not the start that one wants here, but off we went into a stiff breeze and then followed to see where the ball ended. Most of the time it ended well, but playing ‘stroke’ there was always the thought that you had to get the ball in the hole and it was quickly forgotten by some. If anything, the B Nine seemed even more difficult than the C Nine on this day – the tees seemed to be always well back and the wind an ever present.
The overall layout was in good condition but there were a lot of soggy patches on the course that caused the ball to misbehave at times and at other times to pick up mud. Still it was a great day, so who cared!
Back at BJ’s nice and early it was into the results and presentation where we learned that the winning players were all in close proximity with their scores.
In the Monthly Mug competition Tom Herrington came in 5th place was with net 72. We then had a count back on net 71 that saw Derek Brook taking fourth and Mashi Kaneta in third. Another count back on net 70 put Landis Brooks in second place and the Monthly Mug go to Graham Buckingham. It must have been Graham’s week as he also won a world ranking Scrabble competition for 65-70 year olds in Bangkok. Well played in both competitions!
We then went to the ‘BJ’s Golfer of the Month’ award and the result was very close but Tom Herrington just sneaked it from Andre Van Dyk.
Near Pins: Mick Coghlan, Mashi Kaneta, Patrick Poussier.
Long Putts: Don Carmody.
Friday, Dec. 2,
Mt. Shadow – Stableford
December already and the nice weather and busy part of the golf season is upon us! On a windy day we found Mountain Shadow in pretty good condition, the caddies seemed well experienced and despite other groups scheduled for the same day we got off on time.
This is a bit of a tough layout. Off the blue tees it’s on the long side and plenty of water and jungle to swallow up errant shots. Scores were expected to be a bit lower, but still a few golfers found the magic this day.
In A-Flight (0-18), once again Landis Brooks (c/h 7) went about his business in a professional manner and posted an excellent 36 points of his small handicap. John Davis (13) played well enough for second place with 34 points over Brian Gabe (17) on count back.
Mick Coghlan (25) recorded the best score of the day with 37 points to take top spot in B-Flight (19+). Departing Otto Schmidt (35) gave himself a nice sendoff by taking second place at 35 points and finally came uber Scrabble player Graham Buckingham (28) with 31.
Near Pins: Dick Warberg, Mark Tavender, Andre Van Dyk, Graham Buckingham.
Long Putts: John Davis.
