The Pattaya Golf Society (IPGC) at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
Eastern Star hosted the thirteenth Pattaya Golf Society Annual Scramble on Wednesday, 30th January, and sixteen teams were in attendance to battle for the honours on the rain softened course in humid conditions. For the third year the event had a strong charity accent with the Fr. Ray Foundation Outreach Center on Soi Thepprasit set to benefit again from the generosity of Pattaya’s golfers.
From the start the soft fairways gave very little run and scoring would be high for all except the long hitting teams in the field. Indeed there were only twenty-one birdies recorded in the whole competition.
In third place was the team composed of Swiss golfers Rudi Eggimann, Bruno Meletta, with French input from Jean-Philippe Baudot and Christine Gaillard, putting together a round of net 63.7. In second place were Larry Slattery’s “mob” with Martin Hennessy, Chris Walsh and Alan Flynn all contributing well to their 61.6 total. Zero-point-one of a shot ahead were the winners, an experienced mix of scramblers and ESR members led by Mikael Andersson with Ted Gardner, Sasitorn Srithong and Tony Oakes all contributing well to the round which totalled 61.5 shots.
Tony Oakes had picked up two birdie ‘2’s on the back nine par threes and joined Timo Tarvainen and Alan Hanlon as technical winners. The notorious Booby Bevy went to the team of “Rabbi”, Leigh Abbey, Dave Plaiter and Bryan Barrell but no-one enjoyed the day more than these journeymen golfers.
Various prizes and sponsorships had earlier been donated by Jack Robertson, Ken Grimes, Olivier Tahoun, Dave Cadwallader, Masashi Iizumi, Neil McIntosh, Mike Earley, Stephen Rowley, Gerald Meredith and Rick Schramm and warm hearts at the presentation saw more donations from some of the winning teams and most of those present making the total raised 45,000 baht for the PGS “Brick in the Wall” campaign set to start building a security wall around the Foundation development on Soi Thepprasit. The campaign will run throughout the year with a charity fun golf day organised for the last week every month with the Soi Buakhao based group.
The quality of the day was there for all to see with good golfers doing their best to overcome tough conditions and the welcome back at the Elephant Bar for the presentation buffet was outstanding as Khun Peung, Rabbi and the rest of the staff really pulled out all the stops to make the day a success.
The PGS is very grateful to all the golfers who participated and hopes their support will motivate them to even higher targets as the year progresses. Thanks to all for a wonderfully special day.
A touch of Mah-gic at Crystal Bay
On Friday, 1st February the Pattaya Golf Society travelled to Crystal Bay to play a stableford competition on the A and B nines, in two flights divided at 16 and under. The conditions were good but the recent unseasonable stormy weather had softened the fairways, restricting run from distance shots. The greens were well presented.
The only downside was the lack of caddies for the pre-booked event and getting started was a pedestrian affair. The imposed minimum wage is starting to take affect one thinks.
The day itself saw a tense first flight with Martin Grimoldby and Alan Pilkington sharing second place on 35 points whilst Larry Slattery’s 38 points was his best effort for a while, winning the flight with something to spare.
In the second flight Alan Flynn recorded 38 points for third place, one behind guest Niall Caven’s second placed score. The winner was Henry Mah, consistent as ever, with forty points.
Dave Lehane scored the only birdie ‘2’ of the day, on B6, while Michael McGuigan took the Booby Bevy for his lowest score and Mr Len enjoyed Rabbi’s free beer draw as his name was drawn from the non-winners pile.
It was a decent end to a day when his stress levels were tested by the lack of caddies and very slow progress at Crystal Bay.
