Monday, January 2.
Treasure Hill Golf Club
1st Bil Richardson (15) 34 points
2nd Gary Smith (10) 33 points
3rd Mark Hayward (20) 31 points
4th Ken Davidson (27) 31 points
Near pins Colin Greig, Phil Mashiter, & Gary Smith X 2.
The first game of the new year was played at the Treasure Hill Course where most of the group played. One breakaway group ventured to Nakhon Pathom to play two of the best courses in Thailand, Suwan and Nikanti, and what a treat that was. Both courses were on a different level from what we are used to in Pattaya.
At Treasure Hill, the course was in fine condition as we have come to expect but as always presents a challenge with some very difficult pin placements and of course the usual obstacles, the trees. The greens had been cut very short and were very quick, adding to the difficulty.
Scoring was modest as it is most times at this course, very few seem to come to grips with it, only Robby Watts who is currently not playing seems to have mastery over the course. Bil Richardson took the honours today with thirty-four points carrying on from where he left off last year with his first golfer-of-the-month win. Gary Smith was one stroke adrift in second place with Mark Hayward in third on countback from Ken Davidson, both with thirty-one points. All the near pins were taken with one going to Colin Greig in his first game since early last year. Phil Mashiter took one also with Gary Smith taking two.
Wednesday, January 4.
Pattavia Golf Club
1st Hubert Stiefenhofer (22) 36 points
2nd Bob Innes (23) 34 points
3rd Tony Berry (14) 33 points
4th Daryl Vernon (26) 33 points
Near pins Bil Richardson, Les Humphrey, & Craig Dows X 2.
Once again at Pattavia, a combination of fast greens and difficult pin placements was a real challenge for most of the group and a day when once again the higher handicap players came to the fore. Pattavia is one of the courses that have kept their high-season pricing reasonable so it appears regularly on our playing roster.
After two games away in Nakhon Pathom, Hubert Stiefenhofer still had an appetite for yet more golf and it looks like he should play every day after his breakthrough win today with thirty-six points, he improved his score every day over the past three days. Bob Innes, normally gets his name on a near pin, today he did much better taking second place with thirty-four points. After almost three years away Tony Berry came back this week and immediately got down to business taking third place on countback with thirty-three points. Daryl Vernon started like he meant business with twenty-two on the front nine, however, he couldn’t keep it going and had to be content with fourth place on thirty-three points. Another breakthrough for Les Humphrey who got his name on a near pin, Bill Richardson won the long seventeenth while Craig Dows bagged both on the front nine.
Friday, January 6.
Eastern Star Golf Course
1st Kob Glover (17) 36 points
2nd Daryl Vernon (25) 36 points
3rd Michael Brett (17) 32 points
4th Curtis Hegge (5) 31 points
5th Greg Berry (15) 31 points
Near pins Curtis Hegge, Les Cobban, & Kob Glover X 2.
The curse of Eastern Star strikes again, we had twenty-seven golfers arrive at the course only to find there were no caddies. To begin with, we were encouraged to double up on carts with only one caddie at a very minimal discount. Subsequently, we were advised that we could not book in and to go have coffee for half an hour. Eventually, we were then told that they had sufficient caddies and we could return to our original arrangement of seventeen hundred baht all-in fee or one thousand and fifty walking. It feels like Eastern Star is trying hard to alienate as many golfers as possible with some of the recent treatment that farangs have endured at this course.
As expected one of the slowest rounds of golf resulted, on the first par three there were four groups assembled at the tee. The back nine was only slightly better, and the whole exercise left a bad taste again at this course.
As if the course was not difficult enough a strong wind blew all day making conditions even tougher and for the most part scoring was modest. Only two made a decent score with Kob Glover taking it on countback from Daryl Vernon both with thirty-six points, after his failure on the back nine on Wednesday Daryl was able to keep it going today. Thirty-two was the next best score where we find Michael Brett in third place, one ahead of Curtis Hegge in his last game of this trip. Three other players were locked together on thirty-one points with Greg Berry taking it from Colin Greig and Gary Smith. Confusion reigned over the first near pin which was initially awarded to Raleigh Gosney who in the true spirit of golf admitted that his ball was not on the green and the real winner was Les Cobban. Curtis Hegge took another with Kob Glover taking two
By now most people are looking forward to low season again when pricing should return to more normal levels and courses become less crowded. In particular, people would like to see fewer golfers from one particular destination who come in big numbers and inflate prices both for courses and caddies.
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