The Bunker Boys Golf Society
Monday, Feb. 20, Bangpakong Riverside – (blue tees) – Stableford
A Flight (0-18)
1st Keith Norman (14) 42pts
2nd Alan Freeman (5) 41pts
3rd Geoff Parker (14) 38pts
B Flight (18.1+)
1st Richard Baldotto (22) 36pts
2nd Les Burns (31) 35pts
3rd Neil Jones (22) 33pts
Near Pins: Keith Norman, Raleigh Gosney, Peter Allen, Dave Gow.
We had a good turnout for a course that is normally not well supported as it is perceived as being too far out, but with no holdups on Route 7 this was not the case today. The course lies in a beautiful setting alongside a river and was in pristine condition, with fast smooth greens that played true.
The track played on the long side, favoring the A flight players who returned scores that made it appear easy. An interesting feature was using the cart path on many holes to demarcate ‘out of bounds’ to prevent players from taking short cuts across nearby fairways. On the final hole, par-five, this eliminated the opportunity to cut off the dog leg.
Keith Norman retuned an exceptional score again to win the top flight, one ahead of Alan Freeman who continues to play well. In the B flight, Richard Baldotto recorded his first win of this trip and Les Burns featured again just before his trip home.
One very disappointed player was Raleigh Gosney, our Memorial winner, who shot 36 points but because of the cut was relegated to A flight and thus was deprived of a win in B flight.
Wednesday, Feb. 22, Pattaya C.C. blue tees) – Stableford
A Flight (0-17)
1st Gerry Cooney (16) 37pts
2nd Tony Robbins (15) 36pts
3rd Neil Carter (14) 36pts
B Flight (17.1+)
1st Richard Baldotto (22) 38pts
2nd Peter Allen (31) 37pts
3rd Frank Quinlan (32) 35pts
Near Pins: Neil Jones, Peter Allen.
We received our customary warm welcome and vouchers from PSC were the order of the day, but this still meant paying a 900 baht green fee for a course that was not up to the standard of competing alternatives. There were numerous bare and hard patches on the fairways with no attempt to mark them as GUR. On a positive note the greens were in good condition with consistent pace and mainly fair pin positions.
An analysis of the results showed that of the six leading scores five were recorded from the first three groups, indicating the advantage of an early tee off. Gerry Cooney, despite graduating from B Flight, is now winning in the A Flight while Richard Baldotto, in fine form, won his second game in a row shortly before his return home.
Friday, Feb.23, Plutaluang S & E (white tees) – Stableford
1st Keith Norman (12) 35pts
2nd Raleigh Gosney (18) 34pts
3rd Jack Swan (22) 33pts
Near Pins: Tony Messenger, Ronnie Melvin (2), Mike Brett.
With many of our members making their way home, a smaller field than normal returned to the previous Friday’s venue, some possibly giving it a miss because of the lack of caddies. Surprise, surprise, we had a repeat of the problem with us having to wait for caddies to return to base after going out earlier that morning. The course staff were trying their best and gave all waiting golfers a cup of coffee as a peace offering.
Today we played the S & E courses, which we had not had the pleasure of playing in quite a while and lack of knowledge and distances meant that there were numerous instances of golf balls ending up in fairway water hazards. One pond even had two divers retrieving balls as stock for resale.
The course was in good condition with good grass coverage and the greens were good but inconsistent, resulting in many three putts. Keith Norman, despite a two shot handicap cut, also manage his second win of the week and Raleigh Gosney finally lived up to his claim of this being his home track, coming in second. With one game left in golfer of the month race there is no clear leader and quite a few of our regulars are in with a chance.
