PSC golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, Jan. 6, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
It was another sunny Monday morning in Pattaya and we had yet another excellent field with 34 golfers signed up and ready to take on the challenging Mountain Shadow Golf Course.
We assembled at The Growling Swan in readiness for our 8.30 am departure and there were many welcomes to be handed out including Mark Kobrin from London, Stephen Newton back for a couple of weeks ‘R & R’, Brinco Ivanovic from Brisbane, Eric Black from Geelong, Victoria, Stuart Mann from Canberra, Josef Buchberger from Austria, Karl Lang formerly from Germany but now residing in Pattaya and Graham Buckingham, Rita Zoebelli and Hugh O’Donnell.
Gerd Riedler, Volker Buley, Graham Buckingham & Nolan Wise.
As all were on time we departed in three mini vans right on schedule and arrived at the course after a 46 minute drive. It was busy and a tee-off earlier than our booked 10.32 am time was doubtful but we managed to get our first four-ball away at 10.15 a.m.
Watching the groups tee-off in front of us I suspected that it was going to be a slow day and unfortunately I was correct. We were held up on nearly every shot throughout the round but gritted our teeth and tried not to get upset, although I did “chat” to the groups ahead a couple of times but was wasting my breath.
The groups in front of us were not Asian and English was not their preferred language. I guess we have been spoiled when playing golf in the Pattaya area, even during the current high season but this day turned out to be a shocker with the round taking five minutes short of five hours. Let’s hope this was a “one off” and we get back to normal soon and perhaps the members of the groups that were holding us up should consider another sport.
Nonetheless the weather was perfect, the company was great and the golf course was in terrific shape with the greens very quick at times.
We had 3 Divisions – Division A for handicaps 0 to 15, Division B for golfers on handicaps of 16 to 25 and Division C for handicaps of 26 and over with four places in each Division. There were also rewards for nearest the pin on the four par 3’s and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
The winner in Division A was Gerd Riedler with 38 points followed by Mark “Westy” West on 37 points and Steve Truelove was third with 36 points. A count back was required to determine fourth place as there were two on 34 points and it was Mike “Hunter” Gosden (18 point back nine) who prevailed over Frankie “Goes to Hollywood” Sharratt (17 point back nine).
Mark West, Carole Kubicki & Andrew Allen.
In B Division it was Graham “Grunter” Buckingham who was the winner with 40 points, the best score of the day, and Eric “Judge” Black came runner-up with 37 points. In another count back with two on 36 points it was Jayson Schembri (19 point back nine) who finished third and Alan “Colonel” Sanders (16 point back nine) was fourth.
Nolan “No-one” Wise was victorious in Division C with 35 points, one point ahead of Geri Crilly in second spot and Stephen Newton finished third with 33 points. Veteran Hugh O’Donnell had 32 points and came fourth.
Division A (0-15)
1st Gerd Riedler (9) 38pts
2nd Mark West (15) 37pts
3rd Steve Truelove (8) 36pts
4th Mike Gosden (13) 34pts
Division B (16-25)
1st Graham Buckingham (25) 40pts
2nd Eric Black (16) 37pts
3rd Jayson Schembri (18) 36pts
4th Alan Sanders (25) 36pts
Division C (26+)
1st Nolan Wise (36) 35pts
2nd Geri Crilly (26) 34pts
3rd Stephen Newton (27) 33pts
4th Hugh O’Donnell (32) 32pts
Near Pins: 5th – Gerd Riedler, 8th – Mike Gosden, 15th – Karl Lang, 17th – Stu Rifkin
Long Putts: 9th – Graham Buckingham, 18th – Stephen Newton
The Growling Swan NAGA Award, (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Volker Buley who accepted the award like the good sport that he is.
Thursday, Jan. 9, Treasure Hill – Stableford
After a couple of last minute cancellations & inclusions we settled for a field of 28 starters to take on the challenging Treasure Hill layout. We assembled at The Growling Swan and handed out welcomes to Richard & Carole Kubicki from Cyprus/UK, Andy Todd from Hartfield Country Club in Perth, Western Australia, Peter Long & Gary Williams from Melbourne, Victoria, Dave Fletcher back again for some R & R and Jack Robertson joining us once again.
Sadly it was time to say bon voyage to dear friend Volker Buley who was returning to Germany on Sunday after 4 weeks in Pattaya, and Mick “Bear” Wilks who was off back to Melbourne.
Once again all were on time so our 3 mini vans got away from the GS 5 minutes ahead of schedule at 8.25 am and after a very good run on 331 we arrived at the course 45 minutes later. It was reasonably busy and another large group arrived just after us so we quickly got ready and managed to get on to the first tee and send our first group away 20 minutes early at 9.40 am.
The weather was great once more and the golf course was looking good although a lot of the greens had residual sand on them but all in all not too bad. Some of the fairways were quite wet as they had the sprinklers on them as we were playing which caused the workers to scurry around turning them off just ahead of us on a few holes.
The pace was quite good with no-one ahead of us until we got onto the green on the “crocodile hole” and lo & behold there were a group of 6 Thais on the 17th green, obviously doing some “hole hopping” as we had not seen anyone in front of us all day. As they left the 17th and proceeded to the 18th tee I wandered over to them and asked where they had come from but received blank stares so a series of gestures from myself seemed to get the message through and they disappeared fairly quickly. It wasn’t one of our quickest rounds but certainly an enjoyable one and we finished in four hours & twenty five minutes.
We had 3 divisions – Division A for handicaps 0 to 17, Division B for golfers on handicaps of 18 to 28 and Division C for handicaps of 29 and over with three places in each Division. There were also rewards for nearest the pin on the four par 3’s and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
Mark “Westy” West continued his good form and won Division A with a fine 38 points, 2 points ahead of your writer Peter “Blacky” Blackburn in second place with Andy Todd finishing third on 35 points.
Carole Kubicki easily won the B Division with 38 points and in a count back for second & third with two on 32 points it was Stephen Newton (17 point back nine) who prevailed over Tiziano Dal Pastro (16 point back nine) in third spot.
In C Division Andrew “Turtle” Allen was victorious with 36 points and Ian Masterson was second with 34 points. Another count back was required to determine third spot as there were two on 26 points and it went to Volker Buley (12 point back nine) with Vince Romeo (11 point back nine) just missing out.
Division A (0-17)
1st Mark West (15) 38pts
2nd Peter Blackburn (13) 36pts
3rd Andy Todd (12) 35pts
Division B (18-28)
1st Carole Kubicki (24) 38pts
2nd Stephen Newton (27) 32pts
3rd John Davis (18) 36pts
4th Tiziano Dal Pastro (26) 32pts
Division C (29+)
1st Andrew Allen (34) 36pts
2nd Ian Masterson (36) 34pts
3rd Volker Buley (31) 26pts
Near Pins: 2nd – Ken Hole; 6th – Tiziano Dal Pastro; 13th – John Davis; 17th – Steephen Newton
Long Putts: 9th – Richard Kubicki; 18th – Ted Morris
The Growling Swan NAGA Award was won by Growling Swan Mine Host Peter (Pizza) Grey while Andrew kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers.
Note: Growling Swan Golf welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 a.m. with transport departing at 8.30 a.m. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn @gmail.com.
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00 a.m. on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454 005.
