IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at The Links Bar
August opened for the Pattaya Golf Society with a trip to Mountain Shadow on Monday, 1st, to play a stableford event on the well presented course. Once again it was a case of “millionaires’ golf” with nobody else on the course until a Thai five-ball started at 1pm.
The day was humid and the course was playing quite long and scores were destined to be lower than average. Nevertheless, a tight competition was in prospect and sharing second place were Toby Glass and coordinator Mr Len with 31 points each, one point behind the winner Andrew Purdie on 32 points.
There were no birdie ‘2’s on the rolling greens and the Booby Bevy was shared by two guest players as a warm welcome to the group on their first golfing experience in Pattaya.
All in all it had been a pleasurable way to start the golfing week with the PGS.
Strange times at Green Valley
The PGS visited Green Valley on Wednesday, 3rd August to play a stableford event on the course which was well prepared but with greens freshly treated with “powder” and showing signs of wear and scarring in some parts. An empty course saw Gary Bolger finish third with 26 points and Mr Len and Toby Glass share the lead with 29 points.
The main feature of the day did not involve golf but the unacceptable face of business management. Amazingly the group were charged an inflated fee for the day despite booking under the “super week” conditions since April. Six such bookings for a less than popular course during low season showed a commitment by the established Pattaya golf group. Indeed, in the last ten years the course has welcomed almost 3,000 golfers/rounds from the PGS alone. Simple maths show around almost 5m baht in business paid by the group to the Green Valley complex during that time.
The reason for the increase in agreed fee, according to a senior member of staff, was that the PGS was not a “regular” group. How does the club define “regular” when disregarding 5 million baht in past sales? From now on the group will be visiting courses which treat golfers as friends and an important part of their business, provide a better product at a less exorbitant price and placing a value on trust when accepting a booking from a “regular” golf organiser. Greed Valley!
Masa’s fortunes on the rise at Emerald
On Friday, 5th August the Pattaya Golf Society visited the very friendly and customer orientated course at Emerald to play a stableford competition on the course which was empty and well presented. The perennial problem of “crab grass” were addressed with preferred lies and the greens were quite consistent if a little on the slow side.
A tight contest was to follow as Mr Len, Bryan Barrell and Mike Wilsher all recorded 34 points for a share of third place. Just one ahead was the form man Toby Glass with 35 points and his golf currently is at a pleasantly effective level. The winner was Japanese golfer Masa Sugaya whose CV this trip is not impressive but on this day the driver was limited in use and some excellent approach shots into the receptive greens set up some good scores, including an accomplished birdie ‘2’ on the fifteenth.
Old friend Bob Strutt, a Khon Khaen based Aussie expat, suffered the ignominy of the Booby Bevy on his return but the six handicapper will be hell-bent on revenge at Pattana on Monday.
So ended another golfing week with the PGS and many more enjoyable golf days are on the horizon throughout the next few weeks.
