IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
With the continuing dip in FX rates golf is no longer a cheap option in Pattaya, certainly not for three-times-a-week diehards and courses like Century Chonburi are finding themselves scheduled more often than in the past. Therefore the Pattaya Golf Society chose the course as its venue for a stableford competition on Monday, 19th September and found the fairways in good condition but the greens ponderously slow.
With a competition local rule in place to cover the condition of the bunkers the group set off before time on the course which was empty save for an eight-ball (yes, you read it correctly!) on the tenth.
Playing in the final group Benny Hansen came good yet again with 35 solid points for third place, a couple behind the second placed golfer Jean Morel with 37. Tony Thorne found his form returning after a few mediocre performances with an excellent 38 points for the win.
There were no birdie ‘2’s again and the absence from the presentation of the only true candidates for the Booby Bevy gave Mr Len the opportunity to award himself the consolation at the end of a hard day when “cheap” and “cheerful” were the watchwords at Century Chonburi.
Tananusorn calls the shots
Having had a long standing booking for St. Andrew’s the Green Valley management chose to transfer the Pattaya Golf Society to Green Valley on Wednesday, 21st September in deference to a large group of Hong Kong visitors. ‘Twould have been nice to have been informed before we got there! Having said that the Green Valley course is in very good condition and the group enjoyed their stableford competition.
Sharing second place were the front men from the previous outing, Tony Thorne and Jean Morel and they continued their form with 37 points each. Wichai Tananusorn’s previous visit to the course had seen him record gross 74 (net 66) to win the IPGC April Medal event and he amazingly recorded the same score again. Forty-two points blew the field away disdainfully as the accuracy and power of his game drew gasps from his playing partners. His only indiscretion was an adventurous “wipe” on the relatively easy fourteenth and it cost him his first ever gross level par round.
There were birdie ‘2’s for Garry Olliffe and Gary Bolger and the Booby Bevy was kept for a wee Scotsman for his 6-14 split. Maybe the booking staff at Green Valley should have had a share of it also.
Scandie success at Pattaya
Storm clouds threatened as the Pattaya Golf Society left Soi Buakhao on Friday 23rd September to play their monthly charity pairs event at Pattaya Country Club, but thankfully the day stayed dry and the group enjoyed the challenge the well prepared course offered them.
The best score format allowed golfers to play all their shots and at the end of the day two pairs shared second place with the impressive Japanese pairing of Haru Kato and Masa Takano collecting forty points to match Jean Morel, whose partner had withdrawn seeing the early rain. This necessitated a random choice of “hidden partner” for Jean and it complimented his already fine individual effort.
The winning team was the Scandie combination of Jonny Larsson and Benny Hansen, the latter repeating his success of the previous month. This time they produced a round of 43 points.
Near pins were kindly sponsored by “Golfclick”, Mr Len and Jean Morel and the winners were Tony Thorne, Len Jones, Masashi Iizumi and Jonny Larsson. Other individual contributions saw the total raised for the year so far reach more than eighty-eight big ones and the Fr Ray Foundation Outreach Center once again had good reason to smile.
Even in these tough economic times the PGS members have shown how generous they can be when the underprivileged are the focus of the day. Well done everyone, here’s to next month!
