The Outback Golf Bar 2nd Hua Hin Handicap
Monday, March 11, Springfield Royal Country Club – Day 1
We had an easy drive down to Hua Hin on Sunday, just about 3 hours 25 minutes, with no dramas and without getting lost. Those who travelled on Saturday had a slightly tougher journey due to heavy traffic.
With 68 players in this 2nd Hua Hin Handicap, we were predominately split into two hotels; the City Thipurai (preferred by some because they have bacon) and the City Beach, which must make more effort; the internet still isn’t working (it wasn’t in August when we were here) and the breakfast is a disaster, unless you order scrambled eggs but they don’t do bacon! Three guys stayed at the Chalelarn Hotel which has some excellent rooms, if you’re willing to pay a bit more.
From left: Capt’ Steve, Murray Hart and Howard Marson.
Our first round of this three day tournament was a 10am tee-off at the Springfield Royal Country Club, just 30 mins north of Hua Hin. To be certain that they wouldn’t run out of carts as they did last year, 50 were booked in advance but that didn’t work quite as smoothly as it could have done, as they wanted them guaranteed and paid for up front and just how many walkers, sharers and single carters we had, was anybody’s guess, however, we got there in the end.
We were away on time from the white tees measuring 6285 yards. The course was in excellent condition and a delight to play, the fairways and bunkers were generally good and the green fast and lovely to putt on. Many scored comparatively well on the front nine before the wind got up later in the round and coupled with some longer par 4’s on the back nine, one or two cards began to spoil.
For the daily competitions, the 36 visitors and the 32 local Outbackers played in separate groups, each consisting of two divisions, then there was the overall three-day without divisions and ‘2’s.
The top score of the day was 39pts, of which there were two; one from Anton Rowbottam to win Div B Guests and the other from Capt’ Steve to win Div A Locals. John Player kept up his winning streak to take Div B Locals with 37 and surprisingly the best the Div A Guests could do was a lowly 32, attained by Mark Rossiter.
There were four ‘2’s, all on the 6th hole, from Tim Balfour, Campbell Potts, Jim Murray & Paul Lavender.
Div A Guests (0–15)
1st Mark Rossiter (12) 32pts
2nd Fidge Button (12) 31pts
3rd Allan McMullen (12) 30pts
4th Jim Smith (12) 29pts
5th Kevin O’Dea (14) 29pts
Div B Guests (16+)
1st Anton Rowbottam (18) 39pts
2nd Brian Elsegood (17) 35pts
3rd Ron Meldrum (22) 35pts
4th Jim Murray (16) 34pts
5th Cassie Simpson (36) 33pts
Div A Outbackers (0–17)
1st Stephen Mann (12) 39pts
2nd Rosco Langoulant (15) 36pts
3rd Paul Lavender (15) 36pts
4th Steve Milne (15) 35pts
5th Kev Waycott (11) 35pts
Div B Outbackers (18+)
1st John Player (19) 37pts
2nd John White (27) 36pts
3rd David Earthrowl (22) 35pts
4th Andy Makara (30) 35pts
5th Nigel Cannon (25) 33pts
Tuesday, March 12, Banyan Golf Club – Day 2
It was a different ball game at Banyan for the second day of the three day tournament. After some discussion between Capt’ Steve, General Jack and the Banyan management team, it was decided to play a shortened blue tee course, set at 6500yds. This was partially influenced by comments from previous years that the white tees are too short for some of the lower markers and that they (the white tees) bring water hazards and the likes into play on some holes.
Springfield Royal Country Club Clubhouse from behind the 18th green.
The weather was once again absolutely brilliant, clear blue skies and very hot and as the round got underway the wind got up, which was great for keeping the players cool but made the course extremely difficult to play.
So with the extra length, wind and tricky greens and pin positions, the scoring was generally low, with a number of comments ranging from, “too long, it’s a joke and too difficult for me,” to “it was great to play”. I know that you can’t please all the people all the time but what did happen is that nobody was going to run away with the tournament this year, with some 27 players within 7 shots of the lead, so that should give the bookies something to think about!
Rod Crosswell was one of three players who scored a very fine 35pts, and with it he won Div A Guests from Kim Stokes, who hit the ball so well all day and was in second place on the same score.
Howard Marsden was one of five players who got lost on the way to the course, causing for some hasty reshuffling, but nevertheless he produced a great score of 33pts to head off one our visiting ladies, Carol Hunter, who had 2 shots clipped off her handicap, due to the difference in rating between the short blue tee and the red.
As for the Locals, there was a three-way count back in Div A between Murray Hart, Martin Kingswood and Andy Butterworth all with 33pts; Muzza (Murray Hart) got the nod to collect another 2000pts for the Race2Bkk ongoing tourney. Div B went to Greg Hill, the third person to score 35pts, with the second and third placed players, Pottsy & Brian Maddox, a long way back on 29.
There was only one ‘2’ today, which came from Cassie Simpson.
Div A Guests (0–15)
1st Rod Crosswell (14) 35pts
2nd Kim Stokes (15) 35pts
3rd Mark Rossiter (12) 33pts
4th Ian Jones (15) 33pts
5th Tim Balfour (11) 30pts
Div B Guests (16+)
1st Howard Marsden (19) 33pts
2nd Carol Hunter (19) 33pts
3rd Brian Elsegood (17) 30pts
4th Tom Earthrowl (19) 29pts
5th Barney Clarkson (24) 28pts
Div A Outbackers (0–17)
1st Murray Hart (14) 33pts
2nd Martin Kingswood (13) 33pts
3rd Andy Butterworth (12) 33pts
4th Paul Bourke (11) 32pts
5th Kev Waycott (11) 32pts
Div B Outbackers (18+)
1st Greg Hill (19) 35pts
2nd Campbell Potts (19) 29pts
3rd Brian Maddox (21) 29pts
4th John Player (19) 28pts
5th Bob Pearce (18) 28pts
Thursday, March 14, Banyan Golf Club – Day 3
We had a rest day on Wednesday but there was optional organised golf at Majestic Creek while some of the visitors chose to pay the exorbitant prices asked by Black Mountain, who still refuse to give us a good group rate in the high season. Personally, I paid them another visit today to try to secure a good rate for August, of which I’m hopeful, as we have managed to do just that for the last two years. The dates for the Syd LeBron Memorial Putter have been set as the 25th – 30th August 2013 and details will be released as soon as possible.
So after 36 holes and the trials and tribulations of Banyan from the blues, the 3-day tournament was wide open, with three tied on 67pts; Murray Hart, Kev Waycott & Steve Mann; four tied on 65, Mark Rossiter, Brian Elsegood, Steve Milne & John Player; two more on 63, Rod Crosswell & Paul Bourke; then another six on 62, Kim Stokes, Andy Butterworth, Martin Crichton, Rosco, Paul Lavender & Anton Rowbottam.
However, today was the turn of the white tees, just to ease the pain but the truth is, it was little to do with the length of the course that gave everybody a problem, it was purely the large slopey greens which were difficult to read and easy to three putt or even four putt, plus the gusty varying wind.
Howard Marson (winner of Guests B) had the outstanding score of the day, with a cracking 40pts which was also the best score of the week. If it hadn’t been for his shocking 8 points on his back nine at Springfield, he would surely have had a good chance to have won overall.
The divisional other winners were Tom Bayley (Guests A) with 34; Murray Hart (Outbackers A) with 36 and Tim Knight, also with 36pts (Outbackers B).
There were eight more ‘2’s from Doug Chalkley, Steve Milne, Kevin O’Dea, & Pottsy on the 2nd hole; Muzza on the 4th; Howard Marson & Graham Simpson on the 15th and Howard Marson again on the 17th.
Div A Guests (0-15)
1st Tom Bayley (14) 34pts
2nd Rod Crosswell (14) 33pts
3rd Charlie Ward (12) 31pts
4th Oscar Sheehan (15) 29pts
5th Shane Brown (10) 29pts
Div B Guests (16+)
1st Howard Marson (19) 40pts
2nd John Mills (18) 36pts
3rd Carol Hunter (19) 35pts
4th Jim Murray (16) 33pts
5th Brian Elsegood (17) 32pts
Div A Outbackers (0–17)
1st Murray Hart (14) 36pts
2nd Rosco Langoulant (15) 32pts
3rd Paul Bourke (11) 32pts
4th Mick Leighton (16) 31pts
5th Stephen Mann (12) 31pts
Div B Outbackers (18+)
1st Tim Knight (22) 36pts
2nd Sugar Ray Handford (18) 32pts
3rd John Player (19) 31pts
4th David Earthrowl (22) 31pts
5th Campbell Potts (19) 30pts
It had been a good week with absolutely marvellous weather and everything had gone quite smoothly. We had had some problems with golf-cart allocation at Springfield and the policy regarding carts at Banyan had not been the same as before, with them apparently not having enough carts thus requiring players to share. We talked to the management as to what was happening and were advised, that as of May 1st, golfers will be able to walk at Banyan and carts will be extra.
The presentation for the week was held at the Banyan Clubhouse, starting with the “fines” for various misdemeanours and crazy things that participants may have said or done, before moving on to the daily prize awards and then to the overall.
Before handing out the prizes, General Jack put it to the players that anyone who had won a prize and had already left should have any winnings added to the “fines” fund, this was passed unanimously. The fund when we had finished had reached nearly 19,000 Baht which was handed over to Nigel Cannon and will be donated to a local charity shortly, the details of which will be published later. Well done everybody!
When it came down to the final count, Murray Hart turned out to be the overall winner with a total of 103pts from Howard Marson on 100 and Capt’ Steve on 98.
Overall
1st Murray Hart 103pts
2nd Howard Marsden 100pts
3rd Stephen Mann 98pts
4th Brian Elsegood 97pts
T5th Rod Crosswell 96pts
T5th John Player 96pts
T7th Carol Hunter 95pts
T7th Tim Knight 95pts
T7th Paul Bourke 95pts
T10th Rosco Langoulant 94pts
Note: The Outback Golf Bar is situated about 6km from Sukhumvit Road along Soi Siam Country. Call Jack on 081 578 1956.
