Pattaya Links Golf Society
Monday, July 10, Mt. Shadow – Stableford
1st Bob Rice (9) 34pts
2nd Selwyn Yates (11) 30pts
Bob Rice happened to be walking along Soi Buakhow one day, saw The Links Bar golf schedule out front and decided to sign up for the outing to Mountain Shadow and play with some borrowed clubs.
We arrived in good order and found the course to be in the best condition we have seen for some time. That horrible rough has been cut to a satisfactory level (for me anyway) and the fairways are very good, although, on this day a little damp underfoot, so not much run. The greens also are in good condition, but again, rain had left them a lot slower than we have come to expect here. We just need to be aware to give the putt a bit more of a push.
Scores today were far from brilliant, because this a tough course and was made tougher by the aforementioned dampness. The aforementioned Bob Rice, playing off his USA handicap of 9, did best of all and won the day with 34 points. A perfect debut! Unfortunately for us, he has now headed off home to Kansas City.
Also on his last appearance here for this trip was Selwyn Yates who kept up his winning ways to notch up just 30 points, but enough to take the only other place on the podium.
The two best nines for non-winners went to Mike Firkin (front nine) with 20 points and Len Jones with just 13 points on the back nine (he had a chuckle about that.)
Friday, July 14, Pleasant Valley – Stableford
1st Maurice Roberts (14) 41pts
2nd Tom Marshall (7) 38pts
3rd Phil Davies (11) 35pts
For the second time in a week Maurice Roberts scored 41 points in a red hot run of form. Not so long ago he had “lost it” and consequently blew out his handicap to 15. Today it was at 14, but tomorrow it may be back to where he should be.
Tom Marshall (h/cap 7) also has been down on form, but came back to finish second with a fine 38 points, while that man Phil Davies was once again in the calculations, finishing with 35 points for third spot, even though he had a horror day with the putter.
As described in an earlier report, this Pleasant Valley course is undergoing renovations and really starting to look good. Through no fault of the greenkeeper, parts of the fairways were quite soggy requiring ‘lift, clean and place’ ruling for today, and on a number of occasions dropping away from casual water.
The greens, although in good condition were so slow as to catch the unwary earlier in the round. Weather today looked threatening for the entire round, but once again luck was on our side and we stayed dry.
With the 500 baht vouchers on offer currently, it makes this course good value and well worth the trip, and should only get better with the amount of work being done.
Back at base, Phil presented Maurice with the coveted Green Jacket and then looked for a suitable candidate for the “Wig”. There were two contenders, but a count back for the worst score of the day saw Bob Watson become a first time wearer of the feared hairpiece.
