PSC golf from the Café Kronborg
Tuesday, December 6, Pleasant Valley – Stableford
With Monday being the King’s Birthday Public Holiday, it was decided to play on Tuesday instead and we had 33 golfers sign up to tackle the popular Pleasant Valley course.
We were saying farewell to Dick Braimbridge, returning to Queensland, Australia for a month and Mick O’Connor who was popping over to the U.K. to work for a few months. Departing the Kronny at 0812 hrs we arrived at the course just 42 minutes later to find that our booking had been “misplaced” and there was a competition involving 60 players in the process of commencing. A disastrous situation was averted as we were allowed to commence on the tenth and our first group got away at 0930 hrs in glorious conditions.
Kurt Sandgaard, The Admiral & Peter Hammond.
The course was in great shape with the greens firm and true and with some of the white tees forward and some back it didn’t pose too many problems for many of our golfers as the scores will verify.
Despite the busy course there were few hold ups and our round was completed in four hours and twenty minutes which included a lengthy drinks break on our second nine.
There were 2 flights with A Flight for handicaps 0 to 19 and B Flight for 20 and over. There were rewards for nearest the pin on all four par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens.
Never before have I seen 7 golfers with 40 points or more in our competition but that was the case today. Peter Hammond took out the A Flight with a terrific 45 points and Ken Bernek was second two points behind him. Third spot was taken by Takeshi Hakozaki on 40 points and fourth & fifth places had to be decided by a count back. With both players on 39 points, Mike Allidi (70 off the stick and 19 points on the back nine) just beat Andre Van Dyk (15 points on the back nine).
A massive 47 points enabled Kurt Sandgaard to win the B Flight by 2 points from Graham Buckingham and another count back saw J C Lhoste (20 point back nine) finish third from Susan Gaarde (19 point back nine) in fourth spot, both players having 43 points. Yet another count back decided fifth place with Jan Lovgreen (18 point back nine) victorious over Frank Donnelly (17 point back nine.
Well played to all golfers on 38, 37 & 36 points who were unable to claim a spot on either podium on this extraordinary day.
A Flight (0-21)
1st Peter Hammond (19) 45pts
2nd Ken Bernek (16) 43pts
3rd Takeshi Hakozaki (15) 40pts
4th Mike Allidi (1) 39pts
5th Andre Van Dyk (15) 39pts
B Flight (22+)
1st Kurt Sandgaard (36) 47pts
2nd Graham Buckingham (25) 45pts
3rd J C Lhoste (24) 43pts
4th Susan Gaarde (27) 43pts
5th Jan Lovgreen (24) 39pts
Near Pins: 5th Mike Allidi; 8th Peter Hammond; 13th Takeshi Hakozaki; 17th Susan Gaarde.
Long Putts: 9th Andre Van Dyk; 18th Dick Braimbridge
The Compass Cap was well won by Michael Catillon, and Mike Gosden took Deefa the Dog around for a walk, collecting many donations from the generous Café Kronborg crew.
Thursday, December 8, Crystal Bay B & C – Stableford
The Admiral was a late scratching with a sore fetlock which left yours truly alone in command and there were 23 of us assembled at Café Kronborg in preparation for our departure to one of our favorite courses, Crystal Bay.
Niels Hansen, Peter Blackburn & Jan Lovgreen.
We welcomed Rob Brown from Scotland, who is back here for 3 months along with his wife Karen, who we will hopefully see playing golf with us next week. After the shout of “all aboard” we left the Kronny right on time at 0815 hrs and after driving down Highway 3 through intermittent drizzle we arrived at the course 45 minutes later.
It did not appear too busy so our first group was able to tee off 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 0930 hrs but being behind a Thai five-ball meant it was going to be a fairly slow nine (B) and although the drizzle persisted for around six holes it cleared up after that and the weather was perfect. The course was as usual in great shape and although many of the greens had residual sand on them they were firm, true and at times super slick.
After a two hour and twenty minute first nine we managed to squeeze past the Thai group and quickened the pace but soon caught up with another slow Thai group in front. A couple of enforced drink breaks saw us complete the full round in just under four and a half hours which was not bad in the circumstances.
We had 2 flights on the day with A Flight for handicaps 0 to 20 and B Flight for 21 and over. There were rewards for nearest the pin on all four par threes and longest first putts on the ninth & eighteenth greens.
It was interesting to note that apart from one person, none of the golfers who had their handicaps reduced after Tuesday’s round featured on the podium in this event, in fact with a few exceptions the scores were fairly ordinary.
The A Flight was well won by Niels Hanson with a fine 40 points and on his “home course” Takeshi Hakozaki finished second just 2 points behind. Michael Catillon shrugged off his Compass Cap woes and finished third on 36 points with yours truly 1 point further back in fourth place.
Niels Hanson’s good buddy Jan Lovgreen came out on top in B Flight with 37 points which was 6 points better than Bo Cardwell who finished second. Keld Ravn came third with 30 points and Kurt Sandgaard finished fourth 2 points further back.
A Flight (0-20)
1st Niels Hansen (15) 40pts
2nd Takeshi Hakozaki (15) 38pts
3rd Michael Catillon (20) 36pts
4th Peter Blackburn (11) 35pts
B Flight (21+)
1st Jan Lovgreen (24) 37pts
2nd Bo Cardwell (36) 31pts
3rd Kjeld Ravn (21) 30pts
4th Kurt Sandgaard (34) 28pts
Near Pins: B4 Peter Blackburn; B6 J C Lhoste; C4 Niels Hansen; C7 Rob Brown
Long Putts: B9 Michael Catillon; C9 Elias Magnusson
The Compass Cap was won by Allan Tranekaer and unfortunately Deefa the Dog was not present due to a severe bout of distemper.
