IPGC golf from The Links
Sunday, Jan. 6, Green Valley – Stableford
As usual we had a good turnout today for our regular Sunday fixture at Green Valley. The course remains in excellent condition with the greens fast and true, but with a strong breeze throughout, scoring was not as good as usual. Fortunately, this week, the management did not put a local 5-ball out in front of our groups, which knocked a good hour off the round.
Three people tied for second and third place on 33 points; Mark Stanley missing out after only managing 14 points on the back 9. Father and son team, Brian and Tim Wilkinson, took the minor places, family pride going to the senior member, finishing very strongly with 21 points against 16. The mysterious Norwegian known only as Mathius, took top spot with 35 points.
The ‘2’s were shared by Lyle Blaw, Jon Batty, and the very carefully pronounced Athole Reid.
1st Mathius (5) 35pts
2nd Brian Wilkinson (14) 33pts
3rd Tim Wilkinson (3) 33pts
Tuesday, Jan. 8, Pattana – Stableford
For our next challenge of the week, it was off to Pattana to take on the A&B courses off the white tees, although on a number of the holes the tee boxes were well forward. As usual, the course was in absolutely fantastic condition, but being very busy, the pace of play was rather slow, with a lot of waiting around, especially at the par threes.
After a front 9 where he could do no wrong, Andrew Purdie “eased off” on the back 9 but his 37 points was still good enough for first place, two ahead of Brian Wilkinson, who had to settle for a second consecutive runners up spot. Third place was taken by Lyle Blaw with 34 points.
There was some consolation for Brian Wilkinson, as he registered the only ‘2’ of the day.
1st Andrew Purdie (13) 37pts
2nd Brian Wilkinson (14) 35pts
3rd Lyle Blaw (11) 34pts
Thursday, Jan. 10, Treasure Hill – Stableford
A small but strong field, with an average handicap of 8.5, travelled up to Treasure Hill to tackle this tough course off the white tees. With the exception of a couple of greens, which were very heavily sanded, the course was in excellent condition with the majority of the greens very quick but as always true.
Conditions were perfect for golf, cool and overcast for the most, with a few spots of rain every now and again to refresh the golfers. With such a strong field you would expect scoring to be good in such conditions, but somehow this proved not to be the case, as we all hacked around merrily for 3½ hours.
Lyle Blaw somehow managed to three putt the 18th from around 6 feet, obviously thinking 28 points would be good enough for first place, but ultimately had to settle for third, one point behind playing partner Jon Batty. Self styled “proper golfer”, Russell Exley, was proud of his 30 points which on the day was good enough for first.
Unsurprisingly given the standard of play today, there were no ‘2’s.
1st Russell Exley (9) 30pts
2nd Jon Batty (8) 29pts
3rd Lyle Blaw (11) 28pts
Note: The Links depart from the hotel on Soi Buakhao at 10.30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9.45am for Green Valley every Sunday. Sign up at the hotel or contact Jon on 080 021 1034. A full schedule of courses can be found on the IPGC website www.ipgc.org.
