PSC golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, March 17, Imperial Lake View A & B – Stableford
56 players and friends made the trip for the 3rd Hua Hin H’Cap, organised by the Outback Golf Bar. Many of the guys who travelled up from Aus had been on an Outback Tour before and it was very like an old friends’ reunion and it was great to see the camaraderie amongst all from Pattaya and Aus alike.
The format was the same as ever, three tournament rounds on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with Wednesday being an optional day for golf. The chosen courses this year:- Round 1 on A & B at Imperial LakeView; Round 2 at the renowned Black Mountain and the Final Round at the fantastic Banyan course.
(From left): Greg LeBlanc, Rod Crosswell, Bruce Milner, Keith Buchanan & Steve Mann.
We had played Imperial for the first time when we came here last August; it’s an old style somewhat colonial style course bearing remarkable similarities in style to Springfield and I would guess from the same era. It was OK in the wet season but regrettably the long dry season this year had turned the course very brown and hard; giving way to very tight baldish lies. The greens were ok but tricky to putt on but overall there were a number of negative comments about the course.
It won’t be on the August schedule and there will be a number of others (golf courses) we will try before or if we return here. Their hospitality here however was great and I thank the Manager for everything he did for us.
Bruce Milner was the overall winner with 109 points.
The scoring was about right in spite of the course comments with the top score being 38pts; two players achieved that – Bob Pearce, winner of Div C and Ed Turner, the runner-up on count back also in Div C.
Greg LeBlanc won the D Division with 37 and Kissy Div A with 36. Div B was a lot closer with four players all tied up on 35pts and it was left again the c/b to sort them all out into order with Tony McDonough heading them from Rod Crosswell, Anton Rowbottam and Barry Copestake with their respective back nines looking like this: 20, 17, 17, 13 and Rod beating Anton on the last six, 12 to 8.
Nigel Cannon kindly sponsored four near pins in honour of his birthday and they were won by Bruce Lamont (4th), Brian Maddox (8th), Tony McDonough (14th) and Tim Knight (17th).
There were three ‘2’s from Jason Gale (8th), Tony McDonough (14th) and Dino Binlusimoen (17th).
Div A (0-14)
1st Keith Buchanan (13) 36pts
2nd Stephen Mann (10) 34pts
3rd Mark Rossiter (12) 34pts
4th Rob Guthrie (10) 32pts
Div B (15-17)
1st Tony McDonough (17) 35pts
2nd Rod Crosswell (15) 35pts
3rd Anton Rowbottam (16) 35pts
4th Barry Copestake (15) 35pts
Div C (18-23)
1st Bob Pearce (22) 38pts
2nd Ed Turner (21) 38pts
3rd Howard Marson (19) 36pts
4th Paul Lavender (18) 34pts
Div D (24+)
1st Greg LeBlanc (24) 37pts
2nd Dino Binlusimoen (24) 34pts
3rd Barney Clarkson (26) 34pts
4th Andy Makara (25) 33pts
Tuesday, March 18, Black Mountain – Stableford
On our previous high season tours to Hua Hin, Black Mountain has been omitted due to the high green fees but what a mistake that was, which this year, by popular demand was corrected. This is a fabulous course and it can truly lay claim to being in the top 100 courses in the world. It was in wonderful condition and is a “must-play” course, when one visits Hua Hin. Perhaps not exactly everyone’s cup of tea but certainly most of our 56 players would love to come back.
Dino chips back to the 18th at Black Mountain.
Check in at the pro-shop went smoothly and we teed off on time, the carts were very reasonably priced also at 600 baht and believe it or not, unlike Pattaya courses, the trend here is to allow walkers!
Bruce Milner was not happy with Imperial Lake View on Monday but he certainly put that behind him and made up for that today, recording the best score of the day (40pts) to win Div A by three from one of last year’s finalists, Murray Hart (37) and the Mann who is always in the shake up and also one of last year’s finalists, Steve, one further back on 36, beating Kissy on count back.
Div B went to the very steady Kim Stokes with a great 39pts from Martin Kingswood (37) and Tony McDonough (36), following up Monday’s excellent round. Fourth place went to Rod Crosswell.
Personally, I don’t think that playing the blue tees contributed to the lower scores in Div C & D but they (the scores) were markedly down with both divisions being won with just 33pts. Greg Hill took the C Div on c/b from another of last year’s finalists, Howard Marson, with Paul Lavender grabbing third on c/b from Bob Pearce, who was slightly disappointed with his 32 but it was just enough to earn him fourth place.
Div D was won again by Greg LeBlanc (33pts) following up his win Monday from one of the new Aussie visitors, Dennis Toal with 31, and Nigel Cannon (30) and welcome back to Geoff Treloar who took the fourth place, also with 30.
There were eight ‘2’s from Murray Hart, Johannes Murken & Tony Aslett (3rd), Keith Buchanan, Greg Hill & Barney Clarkson (8th), and Rob Guthrie & Roger Ellis on the 11th.
Div A (0-14)
1st Bruce Milner (14) 40pts
2nd Murray Hart (14) 37pts
3rd Stephen Mann (10) 36pts
4th Keith Buchanan (13) 36pts
Div B (15-17)
1st Kim Stokes (16) 39pts
2nd Martin Kingswood (15) 37pts
3rd Tony McDonough (17) 36pts
4th Rod Crosswell (15) 34pts
Div C (18-23)
1st Greg Hill (18) 33pts
2nd Howard Marson (19) 33pts
3rd Paul Lavender (18) 32pts
4th Bob Pearce (22) 32pts
Div D (24+)
1st Greg LeBlanc (24) 33pts
2nd Dennis Toal (26) 31pts
3rd Nigel Cannon (27) 30pts
4th Geoff Treloar (28) 30pts
Thursday, March 20, Banyan G.C. – Stableford
After Wednesday’s rest day we had a slightly earlier tee time of 9.30 for the start at Banyan which I have to say was not its usual smooth welcoming operation with the golf bags just being dumped on the floor when we arrived rather than being sorted into carts in an orderly manner.
The course however is another class act – beautiful fairways and massive sloping greens, which were made much harder than usual today as they seemed to lack pace making it very difficult to get the ball to the hole – even when putting downhill or with the grain.
Two of the four par 3’s are particularly tricky – long uphill hits with many taking a driver on the 17th which surprisingly gave up two birdies (to Mark Rossiter and Rod Crosswell). Neil Lavery got the only ‘2’ on the 4th (the first of the long uphill par 3’s) with the other two ‘2’s of the day both coming on the short 2nd hole from Eddy Beilby & Reg Williams.
Rod Crosswell kindly sponsored the near pins with a bottle of whisky going to each of the winners, who were Reg Williams (2nd), Peter Eriksen (4th), Geoff Treloar (15th) and Barney Clarkson (17th).
The course played quite short and as a result the scoring was relatively high with both Suzi and Jack, playing in the first group out, both scoring 40pts each. Jack won his division (Div C), beating Eddy Beilby on c/b and Suzi came second in Div D after Barney Clarkson posted the day’s best score of 43pts to win that division.
Bruce Milner followed up his win at Black Mountain with another here, scoring 39pts and the Div A title from Maurice Copan (38) and Mark Rossiter & Neil Lavery both with 37.
The presentation for the all the days was held at Banyan and General Jack congratulated everybody for turning up on time for their tee times which always contributes to the smooth running of a tournament of this size. He also spoke of the Songkhran tournament which will be staged in Pattaya as the Outback are not going on tour this time – The 3 day tournament is likely to be held at Burapha (Mon 14th April), Khao Kheow or Bangpra (Weds 16th April) and Laem Chabang (Thurs 17th April).
Although Bruce Milner had a poor start after only 30pts at Imperial Lake View, he picked up 79pts at Black Mountain and Banyan to win the overall by two on 109pts from Keith Buchanan on 107. Steve Mann was in equal third with Rod Croswell and Greg LeBlanc, all with 106pts, and Barney’s 43pt final round boosted him from 17th place to a tie for 6th.
Div A (0-14)
1st Bruce Milner (14) 39pts
2nd Maurice Copan (14) 38pts
3rd Mark Rossiter (12) 37pts
4th Neil Lavery (12) 37pts
Div B (15-17)
1st Rosco Langoulant (17) 39pts
2nd Rod Crosswell (15) 37pts
3rd Martin Kingswood (15) 37pts
4th John Lawton (17) 35pts
Div C (18-23)
1st Jack Moseley (20) 40pts
2nd Eddy Beilby (18) 40pts
3rd Ed Turner (21) 35pts
4th Brian Maddox (23) 34pts
Div D (24+)
1st Barney Clarkson (26) 43pts
2nd Suzi Lawton (28) 40pts
3rd Reg Williams (25) 39pts
4th Bruce McAdam (27) 37pts
Note: The Outback Golf Bar is situated about 6km from Sukhumvit Road along Soi Siam Country. Call Jack on 081 578 1956.
