Monday, October 31st
Emerald Golf Course
1st Kob Glover (20) 37 points
2nd Joe Park (16) 33 points
3rd Gary Smith (10) 32 points
4th Travis Kim (16) 32 points
Near pins Kob Glover, Jay Babin, & Paul Smith X 2.
The last game of October and also the regular season was played at the Emerald course in bright sunny conditions. From tomorrow new high season pricing takes effect so we will be watching with great interest to see how this pans out, particularly courses that increased their pricing by what many consider an inordinate amount. It is understandable that after two years of low prices during COVID they would want to recover some of the low income of that time, however, raising prices above what the market can support may have the opposite effect, one always has to keep an eye on the law of unintended consequences. Today’s game at the all-in price of one-thousand and fifty baht was very good value all things considered.
The Emerald course was pretty much in the condition we have come to expect, the rough was brutal, the fairways were ok, but the greens were very substandard., slow and bumpy and many found them difficult to handle resulting in overall low scores. Only one golfer, Kob Glover returned a very good score of thirty-seven points under the conditions to take first place. In his last game of this trip, Joe Park took second with thirty-three points. Gary Smith took third on countback from Travis Kim, both on thirty-two points. All the near pins were taken with one each to Kob Glover and Jay Babin and as usual Paul Smith took two.
As always on the last game of the month, we look for the golfer of the month, and this time we didn’t have to look very far with Paul Smith taking it again by a margin of ten points, his fourth for the year to add to his tally of seventy-four near pins. Fortunately, we have someone back next week in the form of Craig Dows who should be able to offer Paul a bit of a challenge, no pressure Craig.
Wednesday, November 1st
St Andrews Golf Course
1st Paul Smith (3) 41 points
2nd Les Cobban (9) 39 points
3rd Kob Glover (20) 34points
Near pins Richard Baldotto, Paul Smith, & Les Cobban X 2.
The first game at high season pricing was played at St Andrew’s in bright but windy conditions. An all-in fee of seventeen hundred baht (including a one hundred baht voucher) was reasonable given the previous high season pricing for this course. Overall the course was in good condition and playing off the white tees was much easier than our previous visit off the yellows.
It seems like everyone is playing for second place these days with Paul Smith blitzing the field once again. After a poor start where he wiped the first two holes, he went on the record six birdies, missing three eagle putts from inside ten feet to amass an unbelievable total of forty-one points off a three handicap, truly impressive golf. Les Cobban put in a very decent shift to take second place with a fine thirty-nine points. In a bit of a mixed round, Kob Glover who also had a couple of birdies as well as a few wipes took third place with thirty-four points. All the near pins were taken with Les Cobban taking two, missing an ace by a whisker, Richard Baldotto and Paul Smith got the other two.
Friday, November 4th
Eastern Star Golf Course
1st Paul Smith (2) 35 points
2nd Brandon Harnett (17) 33 points
3rd Niall Glover (14) 30 points
Near pins Mike Smith, Paul Smith, & Travis Kim X 2.
The evidence of crazy high-season pricing was clear to see today with Eastern Star charging seven hundred baht for a cart, needless to say, most people walked with an eleven hundred baht green/caddie fee much more acceptable. The course was in nice condition with lots of run on the fairways making a difficult course slightly easier. As usual, a strong breeze was blowing and constantly kept changing direction making life just a bit more difficult.
Low scores seem to be a regular occurrence with nobody really coming to terms with the course. Whilst not reaching the lofty heights of his Wednesday score Paul Smith did enough to take first place with thirty-five points. Brendan Harnett in his first game of this tour took second place with thirty-three points. Niall Glover rounded out the scoring with thirty points. All the near pins were taken with the Smiths, Paul & Mike taking one each, and Travis Kim taking two.
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