PSC golf from The Outback Golf bar
Monday, Feb. 6, Khao Kheow – Stableford
It appeared remarkably quiet at Khao Kheow and the 32 Outbackers were away on time on the A loop, with it almost to themselves. B was our other nine and the course was a little damp in places with carts allowed only in the rough, so we played winter rules.
Raji & John O’Keefe had matching 37’s, each winning their respective divisions and they were the only two players to better their handicap. Steve Plant & Bob St. Aubin had to be split on count back for second place in Div A, both with 35pts whilst the second placed man in Div B was Jarrod Braithwaite, a long way back with 32.
Capt’ Bob (right) congratulates Paul Kaye after his win at Phoenix.
There were two ‘2’s, both on hole A5, from the Sugarman and John O’Keefe.
Div A (0-16)
1st Amarjit Banwaitt (8/Hi7.2) 37pts
2nd Steve Plant (15/Hi13.5) 35pts
3rd Bob St. Aubin (14/Hi13.3) 35pts
Div B (18+)
1st John O’Keefe (17/Hi16) 37pts
2nd J Braithwaite (24/Hi21.6) 32pts
3rd Andy Makara (31/Hi28.1) 31pts
Monday, Feb. 6, Burapha – Stableford
With 32 players at Khao Kheow and 33 here at Burapha it was a very busy Monday morning at breakfast time at the Outback.
Chris Thompson was a double winner last week.
Once again our boys were able to give this course a severe mauling with the inflated playing handicaps caused by the questionable slope and rating given to the A & B nines. Neil Lavery picked up 43pts, easily the best score of the day, making the most of a 3½ shot hike to his index and comfortably beating the next man, John Cunningham (39pts) who is no slouch round this course.
Div B went to Tim Knight on , just one more than Pete Stonebridge (38) and welcome back to Kim Stokes, who took third with 37.
Welcome also to Mark Rendell who won at his first attempt with the Outback, winning Div C with 38pts, ahead of Burapha regular, Ivan Plunkett (34) and a stranger to this course, Geoff Moodie (33) with a six shot advantage over his index; whereas where he normally plays, at Pattaya C.C., he would have been playing off 25.
There were three ‘2’s; one on hole A3 from Kev Waycott and two on hole B3 from Neil Lavery & Graham Houston.
Ray Verrall and his Aussie mates try to remember their tee-time at Pattaya Country Club.
Div A (0-16)
1st Neil Lavery (16/Hi12.5) 43pts
2nd John Cunningham (9/Hi6.9) 39pts
3rd Graham Houston (15/Hi12) 35pts
Div B (17-23)
1st Tim Knight (22/Hi18.2) 39pts
2nd Pete Stonebridge (21/Hi16.9) 38pts
3rd Kim Stokes (18/Hi14.2) 37pts
Div C (24+)
1st Mark Rendell (27/Hi22) 38pts
2nd Ivan Plunkett (25/Hi20.6) 34pts
3rd Geoff Moodie (31/Hi25.3) 33pts
Tuesday, Feb. 7, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
Lots of new faces and ‘long time no see’ returns, amongst the 21 Outbackers at Pattaya, including Ray Verrall and his mates from Aus, who were late on the tee, thinking it was a 9.30 tee time but it wasn’t – it was 9am as always; then he thought they were at completely the wrong course until he called Capt’ Bob.
Also welcome to a couple of French boys, Joseph & Jean-Claude who played with us once a long time back and to Petri Takkonen who didn’t go well today but he does have the most amazing swing and can play some exceptional golf, which is quite a feat given that he only has one arm.
We also had five Thai girls in the field as Noy (last week’s winner) did it again with an excellent 39pts (Div A winner) to be cut again and in second was another lady, Orn, with 36. KE Persson won Div B with 35 with no real challenge from the rest of the pack, headed by Geoff Moodie (32pts).
There was only one ‘2’ from Chop Daprakhon.
Div A (0-22)
1st Noy Kamsantia (22/Hi21) 39pts
2nd Orn Kanasaengsri (14/Hi14) 36pts
3rd Stewie McKeown (16/Hi17) 33pts
Div B (23+)
1st Kurt Eric Persson (29/Hi29.2) 35pts
2nd Geoff Moodie (25/Hi25.3) 32pts
3rd Jean-Claude Coulon (31/Hi31.8) 31pts
Wednesday, Feb. 8, Phoenix – Stableford
Capt’ Bob B’Day Bash was delayed from his real birthday, 31st January to today at Phoenix, giving players the option to walk if they wished, whereas at Burapha they could not. As it happened it was way oversubscribed and even though the list was closed at 40, at one stage there were more than 55 names down and Phoenix saying there was no way we could have more tee times; so we had another small meet at Eastern Star with another nine players there.
Phoenix is still a very popular course and because of that you can be virtually guaranteed to have a slow round at this time of the year, nevertheless it was worth one of our biannual visits here.
The winner of the Bash was Paul Kaye, playing off handicap 6, only just beating Sakorn, also with 38, with a back nine count of 21 over Sakorn’s 18.
Apart from the overall winner; Div A winner, Mark McDonald (35pts), was the only real success story for the men as the ladies dominated the podium despite losing shots to their index. Noodle (34) & her good friend, Oosa (33) took second and third in Div A; Suzi Lawton (35pts) won Div B from Lumpy (Noodle’s other half) and Pete Stonebridge both also on 35. Another lady won Div C, Sakorn on 38pts followed in by Eng on 36 and the best the men could do in that Div, came from Chris Thompson on a mere 32.
Back at the bar, there was the usual birthday complimentary food as many enjoyed the day well into the evening; there were even a couple of fireworks to add to the celebrations.
Near pin vouchers were won by Tubz, Paul Kaye, Suzi & Tony Garnett and the lucky draw bottle of whiskey, kindly donated by Willi Mercer, had to be drawn three times as the first name out was Paul Kaye and the second name, Willi himself – the eventual winner being John Player.
There were four ‘2’s; two from Paul Kaye and Tubz & Bill Marsden both had one.
Div A (0-11)
1st Mark McDonald (1/Hi2.2) 35pts
2nd Noodle Russell (11/Hi12.8) 34pts
3rd Oosa (11/Hi12.8) 33pts
Div B (13-17)
1st Suzi Lawton (17/Hi18.4) 35pts
2nd Lumpy Russell (14/Hi13.6) 35pts
3rd Pete Stonebridge (17/Hi16.3) 35pts
Div C (18+)
1st Sakorn Pramoolchart (26/Hi26.5) 38pts
2nd Sunanta Duangwaw (37/Hi36) 36pts
3rd Chris Thompson (25/Hi23.5) 32pts
Wednesday, Feb. 8, Eastern Star – Stableford
Steve Mann kindly volunteered to take the overflow group down to Eastern Star but, to be polite, the scoring was not very good. Jeff Warner won with 30pts and Brian Maddox (29pts) got second and had the only ‘2’.
The course was reported in average condition but the greens were slow.
1st Jeff Warner (13/Hi12.6) 30pts
2nd Brian Maddox (21/Hi20.3) 29pts
3rd Phil Waite (13/Hi13.1) 29pts
Thursday, Feb. 9, Eastern Star – Stableford
The scheduled visit to Eastern Star today did little better in terms of scoring than Wednesday’s attempt, with the best of the 7 players being Chris Thompson, with 32, beating Suzi on 30.
The numbers were a little low from the three tee times booked due to last minute withdrawals but it must be said that even with discounts, this course does not offer very good value for money; perhaps their rates need to be reviewed.
1st Chris Thompson (24/Hi23.5) 32pts
2nd Suzi Lawton (19/Hi18.4) 30pts
3rd John O’Keefe (16/Hi15.4) 28pts
Friday, Feb. 10, Green Valley – Stableford
The huge field of 55 playing in four divisions at Green Valley experienced similar problems to te previous week, with a shortage of caddies. Some of the groups went out with one between them and in some cases they were just the gardening staff who knew absolutely nothing about golf. We have since been assured that it will not happen again.
So on to the golf and the score of the day came from Pat Regan, playing with some of his visiting Irish colleagues, scoring a fine 39pts to win Div B by one from Colin Oliver. In a low scoring Div A, Capt’ Bob took first place with only 34pts from two of the Irish raiders on a repeat visit from last year, Peter Ennis (33) and Frank O’Hara (32).
Pottsy (38pts) found his form again, winning Div C, two in front of Tom Parker and another of the Irish boys, Shay Mitchell.
Chris Thompson finished his holiday on a high with back to back wins, following his win Thursday at Eastern Star, with a much more respectable score of 36pts to take Div D from Tony Tolan (34pts), yes you’ve guessed it – another Irish lad. Tony headed a five way count back which included David Davies and Greg LeBlanc in third and fourth.
There were six ‘2’s; Chris Thompson (hole4), John Player & Colin Oliver (hole 12) and Peter Ennis, Dennis Pelly & Jim Murray (hole16).
Div A (0-11)
1st Bob Philp (10/11.2) 34pts
2nd Peter Ennis (11/12) 33pts
3rd Frank O’Hara (11/12) 32pts
Div B (12-16)
1st Pat Regan (14/Hi14.4) 39pts
2nd Colin Oliver (15/Hi15.5) 38pts
3rd Lumpy Russell (13/13.6) 37pts
Div C (18-21)
1st Campbell Potts (18/Hi17.8) 38pts
2nd Tom Parker (18/Hi18.4) 36pts
3rd Shay Mitchell (21) 34pts
Div D (22+)
1st Chris Thompson (24/Hi23.5) 36pts
2nd Tony Tolan (22) 34pts
3rd David Davies (29/Hi28) 34pts
