Phoenix Members Golf Society
God or Buddha does smile on me sometimes. For a couple of weeks I had planned to run a pairs competition today, Feb. 19, along with the singles and every day something happened to scupper the plans. Having the right numbers is important, not only even numbers but hoping that the whole field fits with four-ball teams. Well with the usual swapping and changing right up until the night before the groupings were perfect. All I had to hope was that everyone would turn up on the day. Yippee they did!
I was also very pleasantly (and gratefully) surprised that everyone turned up for registration the earliest I have ever known. Thanks guys, it really does help to start the day better.
Tuesday’s winners pose with staff at The Relax Bar.
With 25 minutes before the first tee time all the money was in and the groups were completed and ready to start. The only down side was we were booked on Ocean/Mountain course, which makes life a little difficult for some because the stroke indexes are the same for the two nines. It’s amazing how many players think they can take their top shot on both nines (that is if their handicap is an odd number).
To make the start easier I had called Phoenix the day before to find out which two courses we were going to play. Whilst on the phone I requested that perhaps we could play two courses with different stroke index numbers. They politely told me the course was very busy for that day and that we could not change. O.K. no problem, so I made up all the scorecards the night before so as to try and make the scoring easy for the players.
You know what’s coming next don’t you. As we assembled near the starters hut the head marshal suggested to me that perhaps we would like to change to the Lake/Ocean course. Exactly what I had requested the day before! Murphy’s Law – the score cards had been made up for the Ocean/Mountain course. So off we went on the Ocean/Mountain.
The scoring for the day was quite varied. In the singles match only one player played to his handicap but in the better-ball matches there were some very good scores indeed. Needless to say by playing a better-ball stableford, which allows players their full shots and claiming shots on the easier holes, the higher handicap players returned far better scores that the lower handicapped players.
Pairs Results
1st Peter Harris & Patrick Browne 43pts
2nd Sergio Volpi & Sergio Poggi 41pts
3rd John Bartley & Richard Baldwin 41pts
Singles Results
1st Gary Blackburne 36pts
2nd Peter Harris 34pts
3rd Joe Miller 34pts
4th Joris Goetschalckx 33pts
Near Pins: Michael Padilla, Richard Baldwin, Eamon Murtagh & Gary Blackburne.
For the rest of the field there is always the lucky draw and the winners of these prizes (donated by our hosts The Relax Bar) were Mike Gerrard, Harvey Trewarn & Joe Miller.
Briefly Friday’s results were as follows: Peter (Bomber) Harris kept his winning ways going with a fine 38 points followed closely by Mukash Thakker & Granville Swanton, both with 36 points, and Bengt Hellstrom claiming fourth place with 33.
Near pins were claimed by Ulf Bergstrom, Peter Harris, Bengt Hegstrom & Granville Swanton. Lucky draw prizes went to Ulf Berggren, Richard Baldwin & Bob Neylon.
Every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday are our days at Phoenix. If anyone is interested we welcome both Phoenix golf club members and non members as our guests who have an official handicap of no more than 28 and we are a men only group.
Low season at Phoenix starts on 1st April 2013 and the Sports Days will be Tuesday and Thursday at 800 baht green fee with Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1,000 baht green fee. Weekends will obviously be much dearer, but with concessions for members guests.
