PSC Golf from The Billabong Golf Bar
Monday, March 7, Phoenix – Stableford
The greens were woolly and slow on our front nine which was, unusually so, on the Ocean course. Phoenix are hoping to host a prestigious tournament in the near future and are relaying all the blue tees for the occasion. The blue tees were placed where the whites should be and the white tees were situated where the yellow tees should be, making the course so much shorter. With me so far?
This seemed to help the scoring as most of the 29 golfers came in with more than 30 points. Our back nine on Mountain, no changes to the tees but the greens were still slow, did not stop 3 superstars playing out of their skins.
Gentry Harrington (2nd right) with William Macey, Les Easton and Wayne Martyn.
The colourful Wayne Martyn occupied fourth spot with 39 points while William Macey must have thought he stood a chance of winning the day with his 43 points, but this score had him in third position behind Les Easton on 44. But even these scores paled into insignificance when Gentry Harrington gave his card to Capt. Bob. On the first tee he was feeling down, explaining to anyone that listened that he was having a bad run and could not understand why. Tissues were on hand for him to wipe away the tears but these were not needed in the clubhouse when, playing off 10, he recorded a remarkable 46 points, which equates to level par for the 18 holes. What is that phrase beware the injured golfer, well in this case it was beware the depressed American golfer.
It goes without saying that Gentry also scored a 2 as did Wayne Cotterell and Pat Regan.
Wednesday, March 9, Green Valley – Stableford
You can always rely on the management of Green Valley for their consistency and reliability. The Billabong play at Green Valley every Wednesday and there is one thing we do not have to do and that is look to see where the pins are situated, for they are virtually in the same spot every week.
Stars of Wednesday’s ladies flight.
There are large areas of each green which are totally unexplored by those that play on Wednesdays (it may also be same for those playing on other days). It seems that they have an imaginary line on each green and the hole will be cut along that line and nowhere else. PLEASE, whoever is responsible for the pin placements, have a little imagination and use those parts of each green that are never used. If you need any help, ask those at the Billabong.
We had 55 golfers today including 13 ladies. Miss Eng occupied third spot in the ladies flight with 34 points, just losing out to Miss Karn on 35 points. The ever present Miss Nu took the top spot with 36 but this could have been so much better if she did not have a ball that suffered from vertigo and an aversion to dropping into the hole.
In the men’s game, Barry Copestake recorded 35 points for fourth place, with Bill Peach on 37 points in third and the injured golfer for the second week running on the podium, Bob Finlay filling second place with 38. But all the scores were overshadowed by Sel Wegner with a fine 42 points.
Greig Ritchie always stands out in a crowd with his colour coordinated attire but today he excelled himself. On the par four 17th his drive was sitting up nicely just short of the cross bunkers. Capt Bob was mildly amused when he asked for a 7-wood which, almost for the first time in the round, hit the centre of the club and sailed unerringly towards the green. Unable to see from his position, it was obviously close to the pin. On the green the ball could not be seen, had it gone over the back of the green? No, it was in the hole for an astonishing eagle 2. Kevin Hamilton, Nigel Lee and 2 for Bill Peach joined him in achieving birdie 2s.
Friday, March 11, Burapha – Stableford
Burapha on a very hot day for golf and we played the C and D loops, which were in grand condition. With only a small field of 16 golfers were away earlier and were back in just on 3½ hours later. I can’t remember the course being so empty, there was nobody in front and nobody behind us, just millionaire golf.
Dave Bramley (left) with Wayne Cotterell.
Our friends from Australia had a few withdrawals for heat reasons but the rest of the boys plugged along and carded some respectable scores. There were only three players that played to handicap or better and those were the winners today with Peter Stonebridge getting beaten on a count back for second place by Wayne Cotterell, with both players carding 36 points. First place went to Dave Bramley with 39 points while the rest of us were in the low 30s.
There were no ‘2’s although a few reportedly had near misses.
Just another mention our monthly scramble will be at Burapha as the Navy course has a rather large tournament coming up on the Friday.
