Elias breaks the 40-barrier

Golf from Cafe Kronborg

Monday, Dec. 26, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford

A Flight (0-22)

1^st Kai Aabling (22) 36pts
2^nd Jesper Rasmussen (21) 36pts
3^rd Peter Bygballe (19) 35pts
4^th Rob Brown (8) 34pts

B Flight (23+)

1^st Torben Sorensen (27) 32pts
2^nd Jan Lovgreen (23) 32pts
3^rd Karen Brown (36) 31pts
4^th Susan Gaarde (28) 28pts

Near Pins: 7^th Jesper Rasmussen, 12^th Rob Brown
Long Putts: 9^th Kai Aabling, 18^th Rob Brown

Cafe Kronborg played at Pattaya Country Club on Boxing Day, a short ride from Pattaya, which was easy on those suffering from over indulgence over the Christmas weekend.  We only had one no-show casualty, who apparently was partying with some “bad people”!

I must start by congratulating the management of Pattaya C.C. for considering the comments of their golfers and altering the excessively punitive OB at the back of the 18^th green to a red staked hazard.  The former spoilt many a good round when we played here at the end of last season.

The golf course was hard and dry as usual for this time of year, but generally there was plenty of grass and not too many bare patches.  We had given relief for bare patches on the fairway and none of our group needed to take advantage of this.  The greens were a good pace on the front and somewhat slower on the back.  The green-keeper may have been in a bad mood, as the pin placements seemed to be very tough, or maybe there are no easy placements on the front greens.

Inevitably the scores were not great with no-one beating their handicap and the B flight especially finding the conditions difficult.

As if to test the organisers after their indulgences over the Christmas weekend, there were a couple of incorrect cards and a multitude of countbacks which took a bit of sorting out.

There were 2 flights with the A flight 0 to 22 and the B flight 23 and above.

A Flight was won by Kai Aabling with 36 points, who is in a rich vein of form at the moment and is the person to beat.  Jesper Rasmussen also had 36 points, but came second on count back.  Peter Bygballe was third with 35 points and Rob Brown was fourth with 34.

B Flight was once again the count back flight.  First and second both had 32 points but Torben Sorensen took top spot, beating Jan Lovegreen on a count back.  Apparently Torben did a superb chip-in on the last hole for 3 points to doubly frustrate Jan, winning the flight and their individual match.

Karen Brown made life easy for the organisers by being the only person in B flight to score a sound 31 points to take third place and fourth spot was taken by Susan Gaarde with 28 points, beating Kurt Sandgaard on countback on the last 6 holes.

Thursday, Dec. 29, Pleasant Valley – Stableford

A Flight (0-22)

1^st Peter Bygballe (19) 40pts
2^nd Ronnie Ratte (18) 40pts
3^rd Rob Brown (8) 39pts

B Flight (23+)

1^st Elias Magnusson (23) 41pts
2^nd Torben Sorensen (27) 40pts
3^rd Svend Gaarde (28) 37pts

Near Pins: 5^th Rob Brown, 13^th Karen Brown, 17^th Peter Bygballe
Long Putts: 9^th Peter Bygballe, 18th Susan Gaarde

Cafe Kronborg played at Pleasant Valley on Thursday, a popular place with some of the best views from any clubhouse.

The model windmill at the back of the club house was whizzing round at breakneck speed, which didn’t bode well for the day’s golf.  However, the scores were pretty good and playing from the white tees more than compensated for the blustery conditions.  All the winners managed to beat their handicaps, but those of us who struggled did so badly.

The course was in its usual pretty good condition with greens which were slow going uphill and occasionally quicker than expected going downhill, due to the pins being in their toughest places on some of the greens.

There were 2 flights with the A flight 0 to 22 and the B flight 23 and above.

The A Flight winner was decided on count back with both 1st and 2nd having a fine 40 points.  Peter Bygballe came up victorious, beating Ronnie Ratte into second.  Rob Brown came third with the not uncommon trick of shooting your locker number, which was a sterling 77 off the stick, to give him an impressive 39 points off his 8 handicap.

B Flight for a change had no count backs.  Elias Magnusson took first place with a superb 41 points, the best score of the day.  Torben Sorensen came second with another fine 40 points and Svend Gaarde was third with 37.