PSC Golf from The Billabong Golf Bar
Tuesday, March 31, Phoenix Gold, Society Golf Day
The tournament today was at the Phoenix Gold golf course with all the teams invited for a day out ‘on the house’ as they say. The new general manager Nathawat Aksornchat (Nat) is a very approachable young man who is on a mission to get Phoenix where it should be, i.e. supported by all the golf bars as before, and what a fine job he is doing so far.
With millions having already been spent on the course it is not only a pleasure to play now but with more planned investment it will be even more so in the near future. It was a great day out and the staff should be commended for the professional way it was handled, from registration right through to the beer and nibbles when we finished, which I might add took just four hours from the shotgun start.
Bob Philp, Thip and Lloyd Shuttleworth.
The game today was the best two stableford scores on each hole from a team of four players, and although the scoring was up and down every golfer enjoyed their day out. It was a bit hot but with everything supplied, including a free golf cart, there was nothing you could complain about.
There were four near pins donated by the Growling Swan, The Golf Club, The Baan Tong Tong Resort and the Billabong Golf Club and there was a hole in one recorded from one of the Billabong regulars Eng Cotterell on the very difficult Mountain fourth; must have been a fantastic shot young lady well done!
Now there can only be one winner as there is only one trophy, which will be played for annually by the same bars invited to play this year. The winning team today came from the 19th Hole which is the new members bar and lounge at the golf course clubhouse. The winning players were David Smith, Andrew Spence, Bart Starink and Marijke Starink with a score of 90 points – a great round of golf and your names will be the first on the trophy.
Once again a large thank you must go to Nat for his geniality and generosity for making this day happen.
Wednesday, April 1, Green Valley – Stableford
23 golfers turned up at Green Valley, braving the temperatures which were around 36 degrees. Green Valley is always in good condition and credit must be given to the course management for thinking ahead. Many of the greens had been scarified, the rest to follow, for without this sort of treatment the greens would not be maintained at the consistently high standard. But that did not stop some very impressive scores, particularly on the back nine.
Sel Wegner, Eng Cotterell and Glynn Davies.
Barry Copestake and Sel Vegner both came in with 39 points each but Barry edged the win with 23 points on the back nine. They say that golf is a game of two halves and that certainly applied to Glynn Davies. On holiday from Hong Kong, Glyn scored only 13 points on the front nine but undeterred he accumulated 25 points thereafter to finish in third.
Eng Cotterell, fresh from her first hole in one on Tuesday at Phoenix, also had 38 points but her 23 on the back nine couldn’t match Glynn’s and another 38 came from Captain Bob, with 21 on the back nine, put him in the frame but not on the podium
Barry and Sel both recorded birdie ‘2’s but Sel’s had to be seen to be believed. In the left hand bunker on the 12th, he thinned his shot which would have ended up in the next county had it not hit the pin dead centre only and drop in the hole without touching the sides. He did claim, with a hint of a smile, that it was intentional.
Friday, April 3, Burapha – Stableford
Playing Burapha today was a pleasure as we played the A and B loops with the pins set up the same as for the last day of the Singha Pattaya Open, and the greens, well what can you say, they were sensational as was the course itself and it was impossible to get a bad lie anywhere.
With five groups out there were some good scores, I think mainly because of the condition of the course, with only three players scoring under 30 points. The prizes went down to fourth place which went to J.J. Harney on a count back over Eng Cotterell, both with 37 points. Third place went to Bob Philp with 38 points, being beaten on a count back by Thip on the same score, but in first today was Lloyd Shuttleworth with a fine 39 points.
There were four ‘2’s coming from Kevin Wild, Y. Sakulthip (Thip), with a chip in on the 17th, and Graham Woollett bagged a brace.
Our next game at Burapha is in two weeks time and we really can’t wait.
