The Tropical Golf Group
Tuesday, Sept. 5, Khao Kheow – Stableford
Khao Kheow is an ideal place to test your will to win and also has the ability to slice you into little pieces and slowly grind you down. I know golfers who will not play the course because they say it is too hard, but what a great design.
On this day the test was the C & B nines and despite the rains of late we were still able to take carts on the fairways and the greens, despite being a bit soft, were running fast and true.
Back at BJ’s it was soon into the results and the winner with a great 37 points was the inform Brian Parish who was a street ahead of the rest. In second was Barry Elphick with 32 points ahead of a count back on 31 that saw Mashi in third and John Pierrel in fourth. The rest were in the dust.
The winners of the best score on each nine for non winners were Paul Sharples on the C Nine with 17 points and Dick Warberg on the B Nine with 16.
Friday, Sept. 8, Bangpakong – Stableford
The Tropical golfers took a much anticipated trip to Bangpakong and twenty-two players signed up for the longer ride to this course, among the favorite on our list.
Bangpakong was in its usual excellent condition with well groomed fairways and greens that ran pretty much as expected. Still, when all the counting was done if you didn’t at least make handicap you were part of the audience not part of the show.
In A-Flight (0-17), tying for the best score of the day was John Pierrel (c/h 15) took first place with an amazing 43 points, beating Paul Sharples (16) with the better finish. Right behind was Andre Van Dyk (17) showing he has the form back with 42 points, and then big Steve Truelove (11) with 39 points, getting the nod over Brian Parish (12) also with 39.
There were some good scores in B-Flight but not quite up to the standard of the top flight. Graham Buckingham (26) won the flight with a fine 40 points and Nigel Perry (24) followed close behind with 38. Mashi Kaneta (18) earned third place with 37 points and Tom Herrington (18) was fourth with 36.
The best half rounds (non-winners) came from Brian Parish and Takeshi Hakozaki.
