PSC golf from Tropical Bert’s
Tuesday, Sept. 11, Bangpra – Stableford
Well the monkeys are back, and in massive numbers. It must be because it is the ‘breeding season’ or to be more accurate just past it. The place was crawling with many troops of them, but the most noticeable was the number of ‘diddy’ ones. We are going to have fun in the years ahead and it is time to hide everything deep in your bag as they will get into it.
Back to the golf, well it was a pretty difficult round, weather was fine, not too much wind, fairways in reasonable condition, all in all a great day. Yet somehow it was a grey day. You get those days, great course and magnificent surroundings and the day looks grey. Fine playing partners, but difficult to lift any of our four-ball, but Mashi did have a good back nine. In fact the scores were horrible; at least we knew the other players could not be as bad, could they?
Tuesday’s top four: Max Scott, Dick Warberg, Steve Hamstad and Brian Parrish.
Good showers here and a magnificent changing room, so up for a bite to eat, but the food was not up to its normal high standard on the day, so back to Bert’s. There it was time to tuck into the special and wait for the results.
Funny is it not that you can play a course one day and have great scores, and the next play and the scores are terrible, weird innit? The winner today was Max Scott with 35 points and in second was Dick Warberg with 32 points. We then had a count back on 31 points that saw Steve Hamstad in third, Brian Parrish in fourth and Barry Oates just missing out.
Near Pins went to Max Scott (2), Joel Flor and Mike Gaussa
Friday, Sept. 14, Eastern Star – Stableford
For a Friday this day turned out to have a very full field of players; maybe because of the good rate, or maybe because we do not come here very often? There are many reasons we do not visit here more frequently. It is one of our Friday courses but is also fighting for bookings against courses that are usually much cheaper and in all respects much easier. This course is very difficult.
The course is also a great test of golf and at one time had the best restaurant at any venue. Good reasons to attend one might suggest, but over the years it has also had some of the dodgiest greens and now the restaurant is not as good as it used to be. Dodgy greens because they were always slow and had a mold on them that destroyed the look and the putting. Despite much work the memory persists.
So to the tee, and off we went. This is a tough course and on this day we played under ominous clouds, but we only had a sprinkling of rain. The course is always in fairly good condition, as it was on this day, but as usual the greens were fairly slow; certainly slower than those we played on Tuesday, and as is normal the conditions started to get at the golfers and most slowly fell behind. Still, all in all a fine day’s golf on a testing course.
Showers here are fine and the restaurant is a good place to sit. The food is OK, but I still remember the days they had a very high class Chef, and myself and friends used to book to play there just to dine after golf. Those days are finished but if you wish to test your golf, try this course.
Back at Bert’s it was soon time to call the results, and Eastern Star won 21 with one draw and we did not win any. In the A Flight, 0 to 16, we had the one draw when Mike Gaussa won with 36 points, well done. In second was Tony Oakes, The PSC President honouring us with a visit, with 35 points and in third was Takeshi Hakozaki with 34 points.
In the B Flight the winner was Don Carmody with 29 points ahead of a count back on 27 points that saw Doug Maiko in second, Barry Oats in third and Joel Flor just missing out. A tough day indeed.
Near Pins went to Takeshi Hakozaki, Daryl Evans and Brian Parish (2).
T.T.F.N.
