Travellers Rest Golf Group
We have to bid farewell to a number of our players who returned to Australia last week. We wish them a safe journey and look forward to their return later in the year. In the meantime boys the revised handicap certificates are in the post to your home golf clubs. As they say, “Gad Luk Mates!”
Saturday, May 12, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
It was pleasing to record a good turnout at this difficult course, particularly as we have seen a number of players return to their home countries. There were 20 players and it was agreed to have one division and winners were as follows:
Alun Evans & Min Moore, winners at Phoenix, are pictured with Mod Chaviraska (winner at Mountain Shadow) and Ampan North.
1st Mod Chaviraska (14) 41pts
2nd Seil Revels (6) 38pts
3rd Masa Takana (9) 35pts
4th Derek Thorogood (17) 34pts
5th John Gruber (20) 32pts
Monday, May 14,The Emerald – Stableford
The weather was extremely good to us today as we left Pattaya in the rain and arrived in the sunshine, which remained throughout the day. On our last visit here the first nine greens were very slow and recovering from being sanded/hollow tined. There is some improvement now but not significant was the feedback today. However, it is good value for money given the impressive nature of the course where fairways are always well maintained. Again good numbers, which reflects the attraction of the course.
An issue raised was the number of flies in the open air clubhouse when golfers were having their lunch. One member counted at least 5 flies practicing their backstroke in his beer (is this what they call bar flies?).
One division today with Fergus Brennan leading the way!
1st Fergus Brennan (10) 39pts
2nd Roger Wilkinson (14) 36pts
3rd Daryl Ottaway (7) 34pts
4th Jim Sykes (13) 33pts
5th Ted Senior (13) 33pts
Wednesday, May 16, Burapha B & D – Stableford
The course was set up recently to accommodate the Pattaya Open and naturally we were delighted to play the same course as the professionals. Our normal practice is to play the 3rd tee back and it was only some time later we noticed there was no difference between this and the pro tees! (Nice one Ted, aren’t you meant to be back in Australia?)
Naturally it was a tough day for all golfers since there was no secondary rough and when your ball left the fairway you had little to no chance of recovery. On reflection on our next visit we will need to review which tee to play from and maybe consider allowing Ted to play in his own competition.
1st Jim Sykes (10) 34pts
2nd Jim Cleaver 913) 31pts
Friday, May 18, Phoenix L & M – Stableford
An issue today was the time taken to complete the course which was directly the result of a 5-ball being placed in front of our groups. Times in excess of 5½ hours were recorded and this was brought to the attention of the marshalls. Whilst it is appreciated the Ocean course was closed due to maintenance, it was clear we had 4 groups waiting to tee off and why place a 5-ball in front of two groups of 3-balls? We were advised this was the first time a 5-ball had been allowed to tee off on this course.
It was clear the 5-ball was very slow and there were no ‘gimmie’ putts as this was not a Thai 5-ball. Indeed one group (not ours) walked off the course because of the pace of play. It is clear there was no supervision or management of tee off times which created this issue.
With regard to the greens it was noticeable there were a large number of areas which were sanded but not marked as GUR. Putting on these areas was extremely difficult and maybe the combination of these factors made for not such a pleasant day. However, there were smiles on the following faces namely Jim Sykes, Alun Webber and Min Moore.
1st Jim Sykes (10) 38pts
2nd Alun Webber (20) 35pts
3rd Min Moore (19) 34pts
Note: The TRGG play out of the Bowling Green, Soi Excite, and Fergus Brennan (Tel. 086 056 7019) will be pleased to welcome golfers to the group. The website is trgg.biz.com where you have info concerning where and when we play. We also publish our results on www. masterscoreboard.co.uk.
