PSC Golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, September 15, Pattaya Country Club – Stableford
After a week of golfing in Hua Hin I must say it was good to be back in Pattaya with the Growling Swan crew, although it was a very enjoyable trip away. It was time to return to Pattaya Country Club to see how the course was progressing and we had 19 golfers signed up to make the short journey to the course.
As we assembled at The Growling Swan welcomes were handed out to Brad “Bad” Todd from Perth, Western Australia and John Coombs & Ron Grafton from Mandurah, also in Western Australia. Everyone was on time which enabled us to depart the GS 5 minutes early at 8.25 a.m. and after a 25 minute drive we arrived at the course where we had plenty of time to prepare and relax as our allocated tee time was 10.24 a.m.
Dave Neal, Brad Todd & John Davies.
We made our way to the first tee and after waiting for a few groups to tee off we got our first group, a three ball, away 46 minutes ahead of schedule at 9.38 am. The weather was fine but overcast with a nice breeze and although a few specks of rain were felt early on we had a completely dry round.
The course was in very good shape and the back nine, which was a bit ordinary a couple of months ago is now coming along very nicely and a pleasure to play. Being a three ball we had to wait several times which slowed things down a bit, but all in all it was a very enjoyable round of golf which took four hours & fifteen minutes.
We had 2 divisions – Division A for handicaps 0 to 14 & Division B for golfers on handicaps of 15 and over, with three places in each division. There were also rewards for nearest the pin on two of the par threes and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
Andrew Allen & Graham Rice.
One of my fellow golfers in Hua Hin, John Davis, was the winner in A Division with a steady 36 points, one point ahead of your writer, Peter “Blacky” Blackburn in second place, with Kevin “Wayco” Waycott finishing third with 33 points.
In B Division it was Dave Neal who easily won with 39 points. With 3 golfers on 33 points a count back was required to determine second & third places. The result was Thientong Charoenrung (17 point back nine) finishing second from the colourful Walter Baechli (16 point back nine) in third spot with John Anderson (15 point back nine) just missing out.
Division A – 0 to 14
1st John Davis (14) – 36 points
2nd Peter Blackburn (13) – 35 points
3rd Kevin Waycott (7) – 33 points
Division B – 15 and over
1st Dave Neal (25) – 39 points
2nd Thientong Charoenrung (18) – 33 points
3rd Walter Baechli (16) – 33 points
Near pins: 5th Thientong Charoenrung & 12th Nolan Wise
Longest first putts: 9th Mike Gosden & 18th Ron Grafton
The Growling Swan NAGA Award (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Brad Todd and he accepted the award like the good sport that he is and wore the red cap in the bar for a while afterwards. Geri then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers. Back at the bar afterwards there was plenty of humorous chatter and we were subjected several times to Geri Crilly’s “blow by blow” account of his three for five on Hole No. 17. Another excellent day out with good company on a fine golf course.
Note: Growling Swan Golf, the home of friendly golf in Pattaya welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 a.m. with transport departing at 8.30 a.m. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn @gmail.com
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00 a.m. on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454 005.
Thursday, September 18, Burapha, A & B – Stableford
It was a very overcast morning as we made our way to the Growling Swan in readiness for the journey to the Burapha Golf Course. As we gathered there the rain started to fall but as usual we were confident of a game of golf at one of Pattaya’s finest venues.
We had 24 on the starting sheet but this number was reduced by one when a certain person who drives himself to the golf courses went to Bangpra instead of Burapha, and I am not going to mention who it was except that his initials are J J Harney.
We welcomed Graham Rice from Gove in the Northern Territory of Australia and sadly said farewell to good friend Dave Neal who will shortly return to the UK and his lady Thientong. All were punctual so we were able to depart the GS 2 minutes early at 8.28 a.m. and as we headed off up number 7 the rain became very heavy. By the time we arrived at the course 33 minutes later it was “bucketing it down”. There were a few “water babies” who declared that we wouldn’t be able to play but those of us that know better just sat around quietly for twenty minutes or so and lo and behold, the rain stopped and it was all systems go.
We changed and then checked in at reception before proceeding to the assembly area where we were informed that we would be playing the A & B nines, much to the delight of several of us. There was plenty of time as the rain had put everyone in front of us behind and we were able to send our first four ball away 12 minutes behind schedule at 10.10 a.m. It was still overcast but fine and we knew that we wouldn’t see much sun all day but we were playing golf and the course was as usual in great condition with the greens beautifully prepared and quite slick having drained very quickly after the downpour. We proceeded at a reasonable pace with very few hold ups ahead and a very enjoyable round of golf was completed in just over four hours & ten minutes.
We had 2 divisions – Division A for handicaps 0 to 19 & Division B for golfers on handicaps of 20 and over, with three places in each division. There were also rewards for nearest the pin on the four par threes and longest first putts on the A9 & B9 greens.
The visiting Graham Rice was the winner in A Division with a steady 36 points and John Coombs from Mandurah Country Club in Western Australia came second with 35 points. There were three golfers on 34 points vying for third place and it was veteran Ken Hole (16 point back nine) who prevailed over John Davis (15 point back nine) and Thientong Charoenrung (15 point back nine).
In Division B the winner was Andrew “Turtle” Allen with a fine 38 points, 3 points ahead of Geri “Birdy” Crilly in second spot and Sandy “Cindy Lauper” Leiper finished third with 32 points.
Division A – 0 to 19
1st – Graham Rice (13) – 36 points
2nd – John Coombs (12) – 35 points
3rd – Ken Hole (14) – 34 points
Division B – 20 and over
1st – Andrew Allen (33) – 38 points
2nd – Geri Crilly (25) – 35 points
3rd – Sandy Leiper (34) – 32 points
Near pins: A3 – Graham Rice, A6 – Ron Grafton, B3 – Ken Hole, and B8 – Alain Taddei.
Longest first putts: A9 – Graham Buckingham and B9 – Ron Pierrel.
The Growling Swan NAGA Award (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Growling Swan Mine Host Peter Grey and he accepted the award like the good sport that he is. Andrew then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan golfers. It was then back to the bar for several Aussie cold, low priced drinks and many stories of what could have been on the day. Another good day’s golf on a terrific golf course.
