IPGC Golf from The Haven
Monday, July 10, Treasure Hill (yellow tees) – Stableford
CSS 75
1st Graham Davis (8) 37pts
2nd Mike Dabanovich (11) 32pts
3rd Keith Emerson (12) 32pts
4th Toby Glass (11) 30pts
5th Hal Hart (19) 30pts
Another Bank Holiday meant another trip up the 331 to Treasure Hill, where the prices are just too good to pass up at 1,350 baht including green fee, caddy and cart. As always the course was the winner, with even the first man ever to play to his handicap two years after the course opened there, Phil Mitchell, unable to get anywhere near the podium places.
The sole player to better his handicap today was Graham Davis, who made up for his lack of distance from the tee with some clever thinking and outstanding shots into the greens. No mean feat considering the size of them. His fine play enabled him to run out the winner by five clear shots ahead of the nearest challengers.
They were Mike Dabanovich in second place and Keith Emerson in third after they had been separated by a count back, which Mike won with a better 17 to 14.
They were then followed in by Toby Glass a couple of strokes behind in fourth and then Hal Hart, the best of the higher handicaps in fifth after he had lost a count back to Toby with scores of 16 and 14.
Toby Glass cleaned out the 1st division rollover pot in the 2s competition whilst Tom McCarthy and Dave LeHane shared the second division rollover fund.
Wednesday, July 12, Bangpra (white tees) – Stableford
CSS 75
1st Mike Dabanovich (11) 34pts
2nd Toby Glass (11) 32pts
3rd Graham Davis (8) 31pts
4th Chris Smith (+1) 31pts
5th Dave LeHane 30pts
Expectations were high that the trip to Bangpra would be a little easier than the previous event as the greens were expected to be slower than usual, but in the event, with rain accompanying the players from the start, the course again proved to be the winner with none of the hopefuls able to match their handicaps.
Mike Dabanovich was the best of them, at two over as he won by two clear, although he could have been so much better having finished the front nine with 23 points. A very patchy second nine which include two 3s, two 2s and four zeros determined that he would have to be satisfied with just the win and not the champagne round it had promised to be.
Toby Glass continued his good run of form as he took second place with a good round that also suffered through the last two holes as he could garner just the one point from them, but he had done enough to keep the third and fourth placed players at bay by the slimmest of margins.
They were Graham Davis and Chris Smith and they had to be separated by a count back, which Graham won with a better 15 to 12 to leave Dave LeHane in fifth another shot behind them.
Peter Buckley had the sole 2 in the second division whilst Chris Smith and Toby Glass shared the first division pot.
Friday, July 14, Phoenix Gold – Stableford
CSS 75
1st Graham Davis (8) 33pts
2nd Peter Buckley (19) 28pts
3rd Jon Batty (6) 28pts
4th Tom McCarthy (22) 25pts
5th Toby Glass (11) 24pts
Having planned the day to follow on from the European Ladies Tour event, once again expectations were that the course would be in tip top condition. It was but the rough had been allowed to grow up and in a bit, making any wayward shots from the tees very difficult to get back into good positions to score from with the next shots.
Nobody managed to play to handicap and once again the CSS went out three strokes to make it a very unusual three times in a week and underline the difficulties for the players to get a result.
Once again it was Graham Davis to be found at the top of the podium as, having missed out on his “hat trick” on Wednesday, he won his third in four outings with another outstanding round that was belied by the score of three over handicap. With the course playing so tough, no zeros on the card was a very good return, and good enough by five clear for the win.
Peter Buckley won a count back over Jon Batty for second spot with a better 17 to 14 after a very slow start and Tom McCarthy took fourth on his home course, having suffered by not having one member’s bounce all day. That left Toby Glass in fifth place with his third placement for the week.
Unsurprisingly, with the course as difficult as it was, there were no 2s in either of the divisions.
