PSC Pattaya Links Golf Society
Fri. Jan. 24 Treasure Hill Stableford
Oh, oh, not again? There were not enough caddies available for us when we reached Treasure Hill, but the caddie manager assigned caddies to each group in turn as the caddies arrived at the course, sound familiar?
But this was not a course overbooked, far from it. Many caddies were at the Temple “to pay respect for Chinese New Year” (my caddy’s words) and had not yet returned.
However, the end result was that each of our thirteen groups got away without delay, and all with caddies.
We started slightly before scheduled time and for the first couple of hours the weather was hot and sticky but by the early afternoon some cloud cover and a welcome breeze had arrived.
The course was still in the same condition as we had left it two weeks prior and the newly renovated tee boxes are looking good and are back in use, while the greens are showing good pace, even if I couldn’t get the ball to go uphill.
Same old story here, only three of our 49 starters managed to play to handicap or better. Those who played and had scores in the forties at the past two outings came down to earth with a thud, but this is Treasure Hill.
Jon Dean is a rare and welcome visitor as his work keeps him away a lot of the time, but he made sure this trip was worthwhile by scoring 37 points for the win in A flight and the Green Jacket.
Phil Davies, at last, found his real form to score 36 points for second spot which left Patrick Engels in his third minor placing in a row, scoring 33 points for third.
Billy Buchanan has been consistent and grabbed his chance today by winning B flight with 36 points, the third of the only three playing to handicap.
Charles Miller came from nowhere to score 35 points for second and a much improved showing from Tony Browne got him into third place with his 34 points.
Mike Firkin returned to the winner’s list, after a bit of a drought, to take C flight with 32 points. Consistent Nigel Harrison had 31 points for second and Rick Pope was in the placings again with 30 points, winning a countback.
Near pins A flight: George Mueller, Vic Hansen, Jon Dean, &John Harrison.
Near pins B flight: Mike Kaps, Nils-Peter Kristensen, Paul Greaves, & Mike Tottenham.
A Flight (0-14)
1st Jon Dean (10) – 37pts
2nd Phil Davies (14) – 36 pts
3rd Patrick Engels (10) – 33 pts
B Flight (15-18)
1st Billy Buchanan (15) – 36 pts
2nd Charles Miller (18) – 35 pts
3rd Tony Browne (17) – 34 pts
C Flight (19+)
1st Mike Firkin (24) – 32 pts
2nd Nigel Harrison (21) – 31 pts
3rd Rick Pope (20) – 30 pts c/back
Best Front Nine (non-winners) Henry Mah 19 pts
Best Back Nine (non-winners) John Anderson 17 pts c/back
Three silly things on Wednesday and another three today had to go to short straw (tooth picks) countback.
Willy Brown left his carry bag in the bus. The driver delivered it back later.
John Masters dropped something from his bag and it stayed in the bus until it was returned by another driver, both silly.
Maurice didn’t play today so, to keep himself amused, he timed each group as they left the eighteenth green to measure the gap between groups.
The slowest was 16 minutes and ten seconds behind the group in front of them, so all four took part in the draw. One by one they drew okay until finally, Tony Browne. He grabbed two sticks, one of which was the short one and he hurriedly tried to give it back, but, too late.
He wore the ‘silly hat’ on behalf of the other five ‘silly’ things.
The ‘wig’ was easier as Mike Tottenham had a rare poor scoring day.
To end the day, the unexpected. A sudden heavy rain shower nearly drenched our last three groups as they tried to find shelter, but after a slight delay they managed to finish the round.
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