Monday, March 6
Greenwood B & C Medal Golf Course
1st Keith Hemmings (24) Net 71
2nd Niall Glover (13) Net 72
3rd Hubert Stiefenhofer (20) Net 72
4th Graham Davis (9) Net 73
5th Mike Lloyd (15) Net 74
6th Bil Richardson (17) Net 75
Near pins Bil Richardson, Markuu Tynell, Greg Berry, & Sam Gershon.
A hot and windy day at Greenwood for the monthly medal round where we played the B & C nines. The greens on the B nine had recently been cored and sanded and were not at their best, the C nine greens were excellent as was the rest of the course
Even in March, we are still showing good numbers with twenty-five participants for the medal round, a format that is true golf but one where one bad hole can wreck your day as it did today for a few people. Scoring was respectable if not spectacular with a couple of very tidy scores at the top of the leaderboard. Keith Hemmings took first place with a very good score of net seventy-one followed by Niall Glover and Hubert Stiefenhofer in second and third on net seventy-two. One further back Graham Davis took fourth place with Mike Lloyd in fifth on net seventy-four. Bil Richardson rounded out the leaderboard with a net seventy-five and also bagged a near pin, the other three going to Greg Berry, Markuu Tynell, and a particularly close one to Sam Gershon.
On the ninth hole a few people in an ambitious attempt to get closer to the green paid a visit to Elmore corner, a part of the course so named after the illustrious Ken who was prone to spend some time in that particular part of the course, down amongst the snakes and lizards.
Last games of this trip for Keith Hemmings and Roger Tuohy, we expect to see Keith back again later in the year but unfortunately, Roger is not due to return till next February.
Despite being a big Buddha day with holiday rates applying the course wasn’t as busy as we might have expected and we were able to tee off on time and finish in about four hours. As bars in Pattaya were closed we held the presentation at the club where the restaurant staff were very helpful in staying open after their scheduled closing time to facilitate us staying on long after we should have vacated the premises, so a big thank you to them. Hopefully, most people showed their gratitude with a little tip.
Wednesday, March 8
Eastern Star Golf Club
1st Hubert Stiefenhofer (20) 35 points
2nd Bil Richardson (17) 35 points
3rd Niall Glover (13) 32 points
4th Geoff Atwell (24) 32 points
Near pins Bil Richardson, Mike Smith, Gez Williams, & Puk Collinge
Eastern Star was the venue for the midweek game where we had an unusually low number of nineteen, the lowest number in months, could we finally be getting back to more normal conditions? Another welcome change was the much more reasonable approach by the club with a green/caddie fee of one thousand and fifty baht and a cart fee of fourteen hundred baht for Thai residents.
The course was in good condition as usual but still as difficult as ever, more so by a stiff breeze. Nobody rips this course apart and a relatively modest score is sufficient to take the chocolates. In the last week of this trip Hubert Stiefenhofer took the honours today, with an excellent back nine he pipped Bil Richardson on countback, both on thirty-five points. A total of four ended with thirty-two points with Niall Glover and Geoff Atwell taking the third and fourth places, with only an honourable mention for Alan Sullivan and Kob Glover. Nice to see a new lady join today, Puk Collinge who took a near pin, the other three going to Bil Richardson, Gez Williams, and Mike Smith.
After the game, the pro shop did some great business with a sale of some very nice colourful golf shirts at surprisingly reasonable prices. It feels like Eastern Star has undergone a major shift in attitude towards golfers and is now one of the more pleasant courses with which to deal.
Friday, March 10
Pattana A & B Golf Course
1st Brett Chan (18) 40 points
2nd Paul Smith (5) 39 points
3rd Jimmy Carr (19) 38 points
4th Michael Brett (18) 37 points
Near pins Brett Chan, & Paul Smith X 3
Despite Pattana maintaining relatively high pricing we decided to visit today after a long absence in an effort to maintain more variety in the courses we play.
A most peculiar day in all sorts of ways, the oddities began at check-in where we were informed that walking was only permitted after 11.30 am, quite what happens at 11.30 still remains a mystery. One golfer quit after nine holes in sheer frustration, one forget to bring his golf shoes and played in sandals with socks, and most peculiar of all one was seen using a range finder for every shot including putting, quite absurd, but that’s the kind of day it was. We were quickly reminded of yet another frustration with this course where once again the tee markers were all incorrect, with the yellows on the red tees and the whites on the yellows, etc.
The course was in good shape although a bit damp in places, seems like the sprinkler system had been overused, given that we haven’t had rain for a couple of months. We were able to tee off ahead of schedule and finish without hold-ups in well under four hours, some of the later groups were not able to keep up and finished much later.
Some very good scores were recorded with Brett Chan top of the tree with forty points, one ahead of Paul Smith. Jimmy Carr also had a good day taking third with thirty-nine points and Michael Brett finished fourth despite only one point from the last two holes, a case of what could have been. A bit of a conspiracy going on in the near pin department where it doesn’t seem to matter how close one individual gets to the pin someone else seems to get closer as was the case again today for the second time this week. Those who did win were Brett Chan and Paul Smith who bagged three again.
Last game today for Sam Gershon and Hubert Stiefenhofer both of whom we expect to see back at the Bunker in July, it seems like the pent-up demand to travel following the pandemic seems not to be abating.
