PSC golf from Tropical Bert’s
Tuesday, Oct. 9, Bangpra – Stableford
It never seems to do anything but rain, and every course seems like a quagmire at present, so to go down to Bangpra was a test of belief in the ability of certain courses to drain. Despite it pouring down the night before, or in fact for weeks, we decided to nip down to there and as we set off it was overcast so we feared the worst.
Booked in and off we went –naturally there were no buggies allowed on the fairways and what I expected happened. The place was crawling with monkeys. They were mostly up in the trees but they were out in force and I had to leave the caddy with the cart from the second hole on. Even so they managed to bypass her and got into her bag. I hear they also got into other caddies bags; they look for food as all caddies tend to take some with them.
Winner Guy Stewart, 2nd left, and runner-up Mashi Kaneta, far right, with two of Bert’s ‘finest’ and a nice pint.
The ground was wet and soggy and we got as far as the 9th before it started raining, very hard! Eventually it eased, and being brave we managed to get half way down the tenth before it rained again. Another break and we ploughed on with sopping fairways until we arrived on the par-three 12th, then the heavens really opened and the rain came down like stair rods for ages.
At this time we should have packed it in, but as Bangpra have a no green fee back policy we battled on. So bad was the green on twelve that I four putted from 15 feet, water just stopped the ball, and threw valuable points away. But we battled on as did in fact all the other players. The fairways were awash, and the greens very hard to putt on, and the ball just stopped where it landed.
Wet and cold we finished the round and were soon into hot showers, then a quick bite to eat in the restaurant before it was into cars and a quick return to Bert’s, much later than we normally arrive.
We got into the results as soon as we could, and the winner was Guy Stewart on count back from Mashi Kaneta, both with 36 points. In third was Walter Baechli with 34 points ahead of Derek Brook in fourth with 33 points and bringing up the winners rear was Dick Warberg with a hard fought 28 points. The rest got washed away. We then had a couple of ‘cold uns’ and replayed the rain and all said what a fine day it was. No accounting for some people. T.T.F.N.
Near Pins: John Hackett, Barry Oats, Bob Watson, Guy Stewart
