Jomtien Golf with the IPGC
Monday, Jan. 24, Treasure Hills – Stableford
There were rave reviews regarding the condition of the course here today after the round. We selected the yellow tees as normal for the men and all nine groups tee’d off bang on time.
The best score of the day came in for division 1 with Timo Ahvenainen winning with 37 points. Tony Thorne was second three points behind and Billy Hewitt beat Raivo Velsberg and Chris Voller on a 17/14/14 back nine count-back after they all recorded 32 points.
Division 2 and 3 winners, Mike Fitzgerald and Cully Monks, with the ladies champ Herma Fitzgerald at Eastern Star.
The same score, 32 points, was good enough for Jim Connelly to win division 2, with William Chang beating John Harvey on a 19/17 count-back for second, who in turn beat Errki 17/16 after they all scorde 31 points.
Jean Utting won the ladies division with 28 points with Valentina Hiller getting the first ‘2’ in their division for some considerable time after a birdie on the 17th. Olau Rissenen also birdied the 17th to win the division 1 pot while a rollover in division 2 goes to Greenwood on Wednesday.
Nearest the pin prizes were picked up by Valentina Hiller, Arvo Hiller, Olau Rissenen, Dennis Scougall, Jim Connelly, Erkki Pohja, Burnie Sinclair and Martin Ward.
Wednesday, Jan. 26, Greenwood –Rainbow Stableford.
The last Wednesday of the month and our fun game, an individual stableford competition for the men in three divisions selecting 6 red, 6 white and 6 blue tees to play from in a normal stableford scoring system. The ladies meanwhile were playing off the reds as normal, but to complicate matters even more , there was also a pairs team contest with a player from division 1 (1-16) handicap, and one from division 2 (17+) multiplying their scores after each hole.
The highest score of the day in the four divisions was 38 points from Fred Duffy to win division 3 and also from William Chang to take the second division. Three points behind Fred was Eugine Maguire and in third place was John Harvey with 33.
There are two 34’s behind William in division 2 with Jim Connelly beating ‘Countback’ Burnie 21/13 on the back nine, what a surprise. Raivo Velsberg won division 1 on a back nine count-back of 21/17, beating Peter Pedder after they both scored 36 points. Tony Thorne finished third beating Kari Kuparinen 17/15 after they both record 35 points.
Herma Fitzgerald took out the ladies division with 32 points, with Miss Noi in second place one point behind.
Near pins were won by Timo Ahvenainen, Mike Combs, Kari Kuparainen, Peter Pedder, Jim Connelly, Gordon Everingham, Joe Kubon and Jean Morel.
There were no ‘2’s in the ladies today but four in division 1 sharing the day’s pot; Kari, Peter, Raivo and Timo, while with a rollover from Treasure Hills in division 2, Kari Aarnio and Jean Morel were all smiles at the presentation.
In the team multiplier the score expectancy with all the gossip in the bar before we left was around the mid seventies, and the winning score in today for Raivo Velsberg and William Chang was 76 points. Peter Pedder and Fred Duffy came second with 68 and in third place were Tony Thorne and Joe Kubon with 61 points.
Friday, Jan. 28, Eastern Star – Stableford
Our largest field of the week with 6 ladies and 41 men out in the normal 4 divisions. The equal cut today was 5-15 in division 1, 16-19 in division 2 and 20+ in division 3. The playing conditions were superb with a cool breeze blowing throughout the round, the only downside here is the greens are not all the same consistency and there were a few moans about that.
Playing off 22, Mike Fitzgerald scored 37 points to win division 3, Jim Lane was second with 35 and Lee Casey came third with 32.
The Irish boy who’s had a bad head for the last two weeks with 18 friends here somehow won division 2 with 36 points. ‘Mr. Grumpy’ alias Bryan Rought was second one point behind, and with his first game with us Granville Swanton took third with 32.
Tony Thorne won division 1 with 35 points with Mikael Andersson beating Ya Riley on a 16/14 count-back for second after they both scored 33 points, she will still be smiling.
Keeping it in the family, Herma Fitzgerald won the ladies division with 39 points, with Theressa Connolly second eight points behind.
There were two birdie ‘2’s on the third hole today, Jean Bruneau in division 1 and Mike Fitzgearald in division 2 to take the maximum pot each.
Near pins today went to Herma Fitzgerald (2), Miss Nut, Jean Bruneau, Arthur Hancock, Barry Stirling, Tony Thorne, Mike Fitzgerald, Joe Peters, Erkki Pohja and Bryan Rought.
This coming Friday at Eastern Star we start a two game match-play battle with the Backyard boys from Baan Chang, 12 players in each team with the second game at the Emerald on the 11th.