PSC golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Jan. 30, Burapha A & B- Stableford
Well it was the Capt’s actual birthday today so it was to be a special day out for him; playing with Lumpy Russell is always a bit of fun but with 1½ bottles of Sang Som it is a real pleasure: Irish coffees all around for 18 holes and what a mess he was in at the finish as the party carried on into the night!
We had an excellent turnout with some 38 players on the A & B nines from the blues providing some great scores, helped a little maybe by the winter rule (lift clean and place on fairway only), as no carts were permitted on the fairways. They must have had a lot of rain as there were wet patches everywhere. We didn’t get rained on but before we started it certainly looked as though it was coming.
Joe Mooneyham (right), Div B on Friday, chats with Ed Turner, one of the many visitors to the Outback.
The greens were in great condition but my mate Lumpy couldn’t seem to get the ball to the hole; must have been something to do with him playing Siam Old Course most of the time and their greens are like lightening.
So we had three divisions with Cottee securing the day’s top score of a remarkable 43pts to win Div B from the Roscoman on 38 and Bernie Stafford (sausage) back in third on 37. Div A also did well with two guys breaking 40pts; Mitch Black who won with 42 (a great round of golf, 71 gross) ahead of another great round from Paulie with 41. Div C weren’t to be left out as John Player shot his best round this trip (40pts) to take the honours ahead of four players all tied on 35pts.
There were eleven ‘2’s from Paul Avery, Mark McDonald (2), Paulie O’Mahony, Bob Philp, Bernie Stafford, Terry Stielow, Ed Turner, Rosco Langoulant, Keith Meehan & Jerry Quin.
Div A (0-14)
1st Mitch Black (5/Hi3.7) 42pts
2nd Paulie O’Mahony (11/Hi8.1) 41pts
3rd Keith Buchanan (14/Hi11.1) 35pts
Div B (15-21)
1st Wayne Cotterell (16/Hi12.8) 43pts
2nd Rosco Langoulant (15/Hi12) 38pts
3rd Bernie Stafford (16/Hi13) 37pts
Div C (22+)
1st John Player (25/Hi20.6) 40pts
2nd Ivan Plunkett (25/Hi20.6) 35pts
3rd John White (28/Hi23) 35pts
Monday. Jan. 30, Khao Kheow B & A – Stableford
What started out to be 6 four-balls changed a little as three called in sick in the morning leaving 21 players in two divisions. B and A was the order of play and we were away early. Here (Khao Kheow) had also suffered heavy rain the day before and like Burapha, the carts were restricted to the paths and winter rules (lift clean & place on fairways only) were in place.
The course was in excellent nick with superb greens and no “real golfer” should miss this tough test of golf, with the Outback enjoying some excellent rates for green fees and carts.
Chris Thompson had a up and down sort of round leaving probably one of his most memorable shots to the par 5, 8th hole on A, where he pulled his third shot hard left and it would have certainly gone OB; instead it slammed into the top of a coconut tree, dropping two coconuts to the ground in the process, much to everybody’s amusement. He still managed to finish with 32pts, earning himself a podium place in Div B.
The two Grahams did the business; Johnson in Div A with 38pts and Woollett in Div B, also with 38, both with comfortable wins over the remainder of the field.
A couple of welcome backs to Barry Welling and Patrick Engles and also Pierre Cere, having his first game with the Outback.
There were two ‘2’s; Owen Walkley and Graham Woollett.
Div A (0-16)
1st Graham Johnson (8/Hi7.4) 38pts
2nd Barry Welling (5) 35pts
3rd Owen Walkley (11/Hi10.2) 35pts
Div B (17+)
1st Graham Woollett (26/Hi23.7) 38pts
2nd Barry McIntosh (22/Hi20.1) 33pts
3rd Chris Thompson (25/Hi23.2) 32pts
Tuesday, Jan. 31, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
Standing in for the recovering ‘Chad’ was Nigel Cannon, who organised the 15 Outbackers who decided to enjoy their last game of the month at the local Pattaya Country Club.
There were a few new ‘Tuesday’ faces today – Roy and Paul Studds from the UK, Barry Ennis from Canada and local lad, Geoff Couch.
The course was recovering from some recent heavy rain and whilst carts were allowed on the course (using the 90 deg rule) there were a number of bunkers which still held water. We were away on time for rounds of around 4 hours or so.
With 15 players it was 1–4 plus ‘2’s.
Showing the ‘boys’ what she knows about the course was PCC caddy Noy Kamsantia (23) with best of the day 39 and just a shot back was Tom Murray (8) with 38.
Both Barry Ennis (15) and Roy Studds (36) came in with 35 points with Barry getting the nod on count back.
There were three ‘2’s from Noy Kamsantia, Paul Studds and Tom Murray.
1st Noy Kamsantia (23/Hi22.2) 39pts
2nd Tom Murray (8/Hi9.3) 38pts
3rd Barry Ennis (15/Hi16) 35pts
4th Roy Studds (36) 35pts
Wednesday, Feb. 1, Plutaluang – Stableford
It’s about two years ago when the Outback last came here and a surprise turnout of 38 players fully justified the visit: great value for money but you just have to accept that it might be a slow round, depending who’s in town, and it was. The course was in good all round condition but even so it’s hard to remember how hard you have to hit the ball against the grain and uphill and how careful when going in the opposite direction.
North & West were the nines to be played and the General had been down the day before to confirm the tee times and collect a scorecard so he could set up the course on the handicap system. After the slope (143) and rating (72.6) the resulting starting handicaps looked more like something we played to when we first took up golf. A nine handicapper was playing off 12, the General off 21 (up 5) and a 28 handicapper off 36! Anybody with a Handicap Index of more than 28 were maxed out at 36 otherwise they would have been off the planet!
Many thought the system had gone mad and one player chose not accept his additional shots and declined to play in the competition as a result but what we were seeing is what happens behind the scenes of the PSC administered USGA.
When the results came in, they were not as ridiculous as one might have thought, with only two in each of Div A & Div B playing to handicap or better, and three in Div C! The Outback’s opinion is the rating is about right for a course of this length off the whites but the slope is a little steep, perhaps more around 133 would be nearer the mark.
Capt’ Bob came down to help with the input of scores only to find out that something wasn’t quite right with their input and it wasn’t him! The pro shop had given Jack an old scorecard by mistake and all the hole indices were totally different compared to the cards used on the day; fortunately the problem was easily solved and did not require all the cards to be re-entered.
Top scorer was Tony McDonough with 41pts, winning Div B from Sel Wegner on 39. Suzi, playing off 26, won Div C with 40 and Paul Bourke (38) and Eddie Smith (37) filled the top two places in Div A. General Jack, who came third in Div C with 36 said after, “I can’t remember when I last got two shots on a hole!”
Today was also another in our eight event series of the Kirwan Asia sponsored ‘Hidden Pairs’ with an added 1,000 baht up for grabs, the winners being Sel Wegner & Kissy Buchanan with a massive 49pts, a total which is going to be hard to beat and will surely win them the added 2,000 baht bonus.
There were four ‘2’s from Mark McDonald, Jack Moseley, Barry Ennis and Tony McDonough.
Div A (0-14)
1st Paul Bourke (12/Hi8.7) 38pts
2nd Eddie Smith (14/Hi10.2) 37pts
3rd Mark McDonald (3/Hi2) 33pts
Div B (15-20)
1st Tony McDonough (19/Hi14.9) 41pts
2nd Sel Wegner (18/Hi13.8) 39pts
3rd Buchanan Keith (15/Hi11.1) 35pts
Div C (21+)
1st Suzi Lawton (26/Hi19.8) 40pts
2nd Barry Ennis (21/Hi16) 37pts
3rd Jack Moseley (21/Hi16.2) 36pts
Thursday, Feb. 2, The Emerald – Stableford
Poor scoring amongst the 15 Outbackers at Emerald led to the course rating going up by three shots and even after that only one person managed to match handicap. Doug Douglas scored 33pts to win Div B by three from Roger Pearn (30) and Chris Thompson (27). We had two divisions, despite the small field, as no one could muster a ‘2’, so Div A went to Neil Lavery with a mere 32pts, beating the Capt’ on count back.
In the Kirwan Asai sponsored hidden pairs, Neil teamed with two players because of the odd number of starters; on the one hand his score was paired with Jack Piercefield for 37pts, and on the other he was with Paul Sharples, who had quite literally just flown in from the UK this morning. They managed to equal the better ball score of 42pts also achieved by Capt’ Bob & Roger Pearn for a tie.
Div A (0-19)
1st Neil Lavery (12/Hi12.5) 32pts
2nd Bob Philp (11/Hi11.2) 32pts
3rd Ed Turner (15/Hi14.7) 31pts
Div B (20+)
4th Doug Douglas (23/Hi22) 33pts
5th Roger Pearn (22/Hi21.1) 30pts
6th Chris Thompson (25/Hi23.2) 27pts
Friday, Feb. 3,Green Valley – Stableford
With the golfing season now at a high, more and more people are packing on to the courses resulting in us being exasperated by a shortage of caddies here at Green Valley on Friday. All courses are experiencing high demand, so please sign up as early as possible at the Outback to play at any venue to avoid disappointment because it is proving very hard to get extra tee times and the start lists will have to close early.
The 45 Outbackers did get away eventually but it was a tough start for many, some guys trying to go off without caddies and having to let them catch up as they became available, as it seemed some 200 Koreans had exhausted the normal supply.
As for the golf, Jack Butler and Joe Mooneyham shared the top score (38pts) to win their respective divisions, with newcomer to the Outback, Toni Buerli taking Div C with 37.
There were five ‘2’s; two on hole 9 from Jack Butler & Mike Davidson, two on hole 12 from Ian Heddle & Mark McDonald and Ken Williams got one on the 16th .
Div A (0-10)
1st Jack Butler (10/Hi11.2) 38pts
2nd Gary Hogg (5/Hi6.5) 34pts
3rd Ian Heddle (2/Hi3.9) 33pts
Div B (11-19)
1st Joe Mooneyham (14/Hi14.8) 38pts
2nd Pete Stonebridge (17/Hi16.9) 36pts
3rd Sel Wegner (12/Hi12.9) 36pts
Div C (20+)
1st Toni Buerli (26/Hi25) 37pts
2nd Greg LeBlanc (27/Hi26.1) 35pts
3rd Mark Rendell (22) 35pts
Note: For more information contact the Outback Golf Bar on 087 941 2474.
