2014 TQ Masters Golf Tournament
The 21st edition of the annual TQ (Tahitian Queen) Masters Golf Tournament was held at The Emerald Golf Resort on Friday, Oct 17, with a field of 73 eager golfers, split into three divisions, playing in a singles stableford format in a battle to the wire for the coveted Green Jacket.
After a quick dispensing of the complimentary and most welcome bloody Caesar’s at sign-up (an essential TQ Master tradition) the first 4-ball teed off at 9 a.m. in partly cloudy but warm conditions. Play proceeded at a steady pace and the on-course roving beer carts manned by Bill, Sung, Apple and Ann made sure the golfers’ seemingly unquenchable thirst was adequately attended to.
Butch Porter (left) receives the TQ Masters champion’s trophy and Green Jacket from Mamasan Ead.
The course was presented in fine condition for the event but was still a bit damp from recent rains so the ‘lift, clean and place’ ruling came into effect. One player who had a day to remember was Kurt Kanter who made the most difficult shot in golf when he sunk his tee shot on the par four #2 hole for an albatross… congratulations Kurt!
Kurt Kanter recorded an albatross on the par-4 second at Emerald.
Apres golf everyone changed up and headed back to the TQ rock ’n’ roll bar in Pattaya for the presentation ceremony, which was preceded by the announcement of an extended happy hour and a leg of ox barbecue provided by Bjarne of the Café Kronborg.
With appetites sated it was time to announce the winners of this year’s tournament. Taking first place in the A Flight was Rick Kaban with a fine 39 points, three ahead of Sugar Robertson in second and a further point up on Chaten Patel in third.
B Flight winner was Butch Porter with a whopping 41 points while Richard Anderson and Steve Elllison were locked in a battle for second place on 35 points each, Richard finally prevailing on a 17/16 count back.
Matt Miller was the top dog in C Flight with a 39 point haul and he was able to sit back and relax as Ross Schifeke and John Mackay fought for the scraps on 38 points each, the 22/20 back nine split falling in Ross’ favour.
So we came to the winner of this year’s TQ Masters, and with it the honour of donning the prestigious Green Jacket. With his high 41 points tally of the day, Butch Porter was announced as the 2014 champion and he duly went up on stage to receive his trophy and prized emerald garment from Mamsan Ead, who performed her presentation duties with customary aplomb.
There were also many technical prizes to hand out, the Long Drive awards went to Mark Pekuri (A Flight), Ken Price (B Flight) and Martin Blurta (C Flight) while Near Pin prizes were picked up by Brian Dodd, Kurt Kanter, Larry Ball, Joe Buda, Ray Regan, Mal Thomas, Joe Zonca, Sugar Robertson, Todd Bedenis and David Dgira.
Teed-up and raring to go.
In addition to all the division and technical prizes listed already, Jack Levy from MLG Consulting donated 20,000 baht to be contested on the 18th green with the longest putt made winning 50% of the prize and 50% going to Jesters Care for Kids, particularly towards an 11-year old girl’s heart operation. Stuart Rhodes 45-ft putt won by inches as he was in the penultimate group and only four more attempts were made.
Rick Kaban (right) – A Flight winner.
Plenty of folks helped to make this tournament happen, not least of those being Alan Bolton Property Consultants’ for their annual sponsorship and Sinto for designing and producing the quality event shirts. On the day many made it painless with Eddie Behr running the check-in, Bill, Serge, Ann and Apple getting the cold beers to the golfers and Woody getting everyone into the proper sized shirts. That done, all the golfers had to worry about was scoring and then getting back to the TQ for the tasty roasted ox leg and prize-giving.
Matt Miller (left) – C Flight champion.
Do they have to put up with canine intrusions at Augusta?
