The June 11 Pattaya Sports Club (PSC) monthly golf tournament was played at a Pattaya Country Club course in great condition, with some great holes and all the rounds completed in less than 4 hours 30 mins, including two stops for heavy rain. You know you can’t get much better that 29 happy golfers, playing a fun format on a golf course just 20 minutes from the center of town, with an all-inclusive price of just 1,600 baht. Add in a first prize of a 40 inch smart TV, a second prize of a mobile phone and all the presentation over and completed on time at 3.30pm; and what have you got? A supremely organized and well run PSC tournament!
Teeing off at 8.30am, the weather was cool but windy and everyone checked in on time with no exceptions. Tim & Nigel were as usual in charge of the office/check-in procedure whilst Jack assumed his role as the starter. Then the dark clouds rolled in bringing with them, heavy rain; some doom and gloom set in that the golf might come to an abrupt halt. However, clear skies were not far away and the rounds were able to continue, there was no thunder and lightning and apart from one more stop for some more heavy rain, everybody finished and made their way to Siam Country Resort on time.
Many of the players had not been to the Resort before and nodded their approval of the retreat, which offers excellent food, bar facilities and accommodation. Owner, Neville and his staff were extremely welcoming and I am sure it will not be too long before we return here as a PSC member group facility.
We went with one division in this novel format which many enjoy playing; the essence being, that a player (male) must play 6 red, 6 white and 6 blue tees and a lady or silver player must play 9 reds/silvers and 9 white. The strategy of whether to pick a red tee on a par 5 to maybe get on the green in two or the blue tee on a par 4 that you cannot get on it two from the whites, is quite intriguing and all part of the fun of this format and can easily make a difference between winning and losing.
It was all very close, with three players tied on 38 points, leading to countbacks for the minor podium places. Taking sixth spot was Alfredo Ventrurini (H’cap 18), losing out on the countback to John Player (19) in fifth and John Healy (14) fourth. In the bronze medal position was Lloyd Shuttleworth (5), being edged out of second place on another countback by Dave Smith (10), both on 39 points. The winner for this month was Torben Lindgaard (27) with a fine 40-point total.
Near pins went to Travis Linger, Charles Heneghan (x2), Lloyd Shuttleworth, Per Lovgren, John Player, Sel Wegner and Ed Turner.
Thanks go to the PSC office staff for doing all the paperwork and especially to Tim and Nigel for their help on the day.
The next PSC monthly golf tournament will be a 2-person better-ball stableford competition at Laem Chabang Country Club on July 15 for the very special rate of 1800 baht (all up) plus the comp fee of 200 baht. Sign up at the PSC office (on line sign-up disabled for now) as soon as possible, limited space available.
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