IPGC Pattaya Golf Society based at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
The Pattaya Golf Society visited Khao Kheow on Monday, 21st February, to play its Monthly Medal competition on the B and A nines. After a day of heavy rain the course was soft and the rough was clinging, making the track very long off the yellow tees. On a scale of difficulty the Pete Dye creation is up there with the toughest and in the excessively humid conditions scores were destined to be low.
The field was divided into two flights at fourteen and under and in the top flight Rob Lamond produced the fourth best score of the day, net 74, to finish in third place behind the two very creditable rounds of the joint winners Peter Masters and Brian Beaupre, on net 73. Peter’s round was even better but he had earlier called a foul on himself for a mistake by his caddy, unaware of the group’s “one chance” policy regarding errant caddies. Canadian Brian’s gross score of 78 was the best of the day.
In the second flight Martin Hennessey took third place with net 79, just behind Larry Slattery in second with net 78. The flight winner was Norwegian Tore Eliassen whose net 70 was the only sub-par round of the day.
In the second flight Chris Walsh recorded the only birdie ‘2’ whilst in the top flight David Thomas, Paul Sturgeon, Rob Lamond and Brian Beaupre (two) all shared the honours.
The Booby Bevy went to John Mason, his tee shots now a distant memory of the halcyon days last September when he assumed the role of “Medal Man”, leaving him with one of the highest scores of the day.
Khao Kheow in this condition certainly bares its teeth and Tore Eliassen was the only golfer to survive unscathed.
The PGS ‘Golf for Fr. Ray Day’
The Pattaya Golf Society, based at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar in Soi Buakhao is rightly proud of its friendly and warm-hearted members and when the decision was taken to play one event each month with a “fun” based format to raise awareness and some funds for charity the members supported it wholeheartedly.
The group’s charity has always been linked to the Fr. Ray Foundation and the focus this year is the Fr. Ray Outreach and Drop-in Centre which has recently been developed in Soi Thepprasit. For this reason the PGS played a pairs scramble at Eastern Star on Wednesday 23rd February, and it was very well supported with fifteen teams entering.
Technical prizes had been generously donated by John Mason and Mike Ensor and all costs on the day were waived with the Outreach Centre benefitting at the end to the tune of more than eight thousand baht made up of entries and individual donations. It was a magnificent response and the Centre’s Administrative Officer, Khun Phennipa was overjoyed with the effort.
For the record there tournament was won by Dave Moriarty & Chris Walsh with 59.2 points ahead of Larry Brand & Fredy Braun (60.2 points) in second and Chris Smith & Nile Sheehan (62.6 points) taking third place. Technical prizes were won by Dave Moriarty and Mike Earley.
The universal opinion was that the day had been a wonderful success and plans are well advanced for the next event at St Andrew’s in the third week of March when Combination Pairs stableford will be the format. Entry could not be easier with an entry sheet in the bar from a week before. Well done everyone on the first PGS “Golf for Fr Ray Day”.
Buoyant Beaupre
Resilient and reliable are these Pattaya Golf Society members as on Friday, 25th February, when they found they had been muscled off the Treasure Hill radar at the last minute by a large contingent of holiday golfers from “Boys town” and had been abysmally treated by the course management, they politely and astutely retired to Pattana to play a stableford competition over the B and C nines instead. They found a course in excellent condition, if a little damp, and the first tee available immediately.
The field was divided into two flights at fifteen and under and in the second flight Ralph McCarthy joined Jim Ferris in second place with 32 points. The flight winner was Gordon Everingham with 34 points.
The top flight saw some excellent performances as Larry Bland proved with his 38 point return for third place, chasing the heels of Mike Ensor and Brian Beaupre, both finishing on 41 points. Mike Ensor’s round was quality golf indeed to end his stay but five handicapper Brian’s card represented level par “off the sticks” for the best gross round of the year so far. He also shared the ‘2’s pot with Tore Eliassen.
The Booby Bevy went to visitor Simon Spinks for his 20-6 point split.
The image of the “Land of Smiles” had earlier been sadly tarnished by the most abusive management on the Eastern Seaboard and yet the ability of the large group to adjust to a major change at a moment’s notice reflected well on the friends of the PGS. It had been another golf day when there was much to remember but the standard of the golf will remain as a testament to the quality of the Soi Buakhao group.
