PSC golf from the Growling Swan
Monday, Nov. 4, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
You beaut, ripper mate and on yer son!….These are terms (Australian slang) generally used with reference/expression to merriment, joy and pleasure, which is what the “temporary organizers” of the Growling Swan golf outlet were experiencing today, this being the last day of their penalty duties. President Peter Blackburn was due to return the next day, and not before time!
Once again, this scribe (Stu) was unable to tackle the course and thus relied solely on the score sheet and stories of the day relayed by others.
Welcomes were made to Paul Simon who returns to Pattaya from Victoria in Oz for more golfing pleasures, Geoff Wallace, Greg Preferment and Andre Barril. Meanwhile a farewell was said to Luca Santy who was heading back home.
Sal Brizzi, Max Bracegirdle, Niall Stuart & Gary Monley.
Carts were allowed on the fairways today because the course was dry and it was a sunny/windy so the blue tees were selected to be played from. I am not sure if this brought groans or cheers from the players, however on reflection it is noted that the previous week, when playing off the yellow tees, only three players played to par or better and today off the blues was no better.
Due to the dry conditions the players completed their rounds in a good time of four hours and ten minutes, which would have been a damn sight longer if I and some of the other delinquents of the GS crew had played.
Our newly arrived, happy, bubbly Japanese player Toshi Abe clearly had a good day and won Division A with 36 points and also collected many of the novelty prizes too! Second was Ebrahim, pleased to be coming off a sour spell, with 34 points and Monthly Mug winner Alaine Taddei was again in the prizes with 32 points, however he had to await a count back from Gero Reidler and Ed Stewart before being awarded third spot.
Division B was won by Patrick Poussier with the highest points score of the day, 37 points, and was followed in by John Davis with a creditable 36 and Maxi Babe (Bracegirdle) took out third place with 34.
Division A (0–20)
1st Toshi Abe (20) 36pts
2nd Ebrahim (18) 34pts
3rd Alaine Taddei (15) 32pts
Division B (21+)
1st Patrick Poussier (23) 37pts
2nd John Davis (21) 36pts
3rd Max Bracegirdle (23) 34pts
Near Pins: 5th – Toshi Abe, 8th – Bill Steinmann, 15th – Toshi Abe, 17th – Max Bracegirdle
Long Putts: 9th – Alaine Taddei, 18th – Toshi Abe
Our returned visitor Paul Simon had his mind on his other Thai interests today as he was the surprise winner of the not so prestigious but very charitable NAGA award for lowest score of the day.
It was with sadness and regret that we were informed of the passing of one of our long time standing Pattaya golfers, Kevin Dinan. RIP Kevin.
Thursday, Nov. 7, Crystal Bay A & B – Stableford
After 2 weeks in Perth, Western Australia it was great to be back playing golf in Pattaya. I must firstly thank the guys who ran the show so efficiently in my absence, mainly Peter Grey, John Pierrel, Dick Braimbridge, Max Bracegirdle and of course Stuart Rifkin who did a superb job doing those very funny write-ups – many thanks to them all.
Toshi Abe, Paul Simon & Patrick Poussier.
We also welcomed Tony Campbell from Melbourne today and newcomer Bill Roycroft from Canada. It was sadly time to say farewell to Niall Stuart who was returning to work in Guinea, West Africa.
The rain seemed to have gone away and we had an excellent starting sheet with 30 golfers signed up to play the popular Crystal Bay Golf Course. Our 3 mini vans got away right on time and after arriving at the course 45 minutes later we found it fairly busy but were able to tee off A1 (A & B nines were the allocated combination) 12 minutes ahead of schedule.
The weather was perfect for golf, not too hot with a nice breeze (at times a bit stronger than that) and the golf course was in very good shape although the greens had suffered from the recent heavy rains and were a touch ordinary. It did not deter my playing partners in Group 1 which provided the first 2 placegetters in Division A and it was a very enjoyable day as we completed the round in four hours and twenty minutes.
We had 3 divisions – Division A for handicaps 0 to 14, Division B for handicaps 15 to 24 and Division C for handicaps 25 & over with 3 places in each. There were also rewards for nearest the pins on the four par threes and longest first putts on the A9 & B9 greens.
The A Division was won by Sal Brizzi with a fine 40 points, just 1 point ahead of Bill Steinman in second spot. With 2 golfers on 37 points a count back was required which resulted in Peter Bye (19 point back nine, 14 points on the last 6 holes & 7 points on the last 3 holes) taking third place from a luckless John Pierrel (19 point back nine, 14 points on the last 6 holes & 5 points on the last 3 holes).
Max “Corsets” Bracegirdle was victorious in B Division with 37 points, 2 points ahead of Mark “Westy” West in second place, with Ebrahim on 33 points returning to form in third spot.
C Division was won by Gary Monley with 36 points and Fred Dineley was second with 34. Another count back was necessary to determine third place with 2 golfers on 33 points and it was Sandy “Cindy Lauper” Leiper (16 point back nine, 11 points on the last 6 holes) who captured third spot from Andrew “Turtle” Allen (16 point back nine, 10 points on the last 6 holes.
Division A (0-14)
1st Sal Brizzi (7) 40pts
2nd Bill Steinman (8) 39pts
3rd Peter Bye (12) 37pts
Division B (15-24)
1st Max Bracegirdle (23) 37pts
2nd Mark West (16) 35pts
3rd Ebrahim (18) 33pts
Division C (25+)
1st Gary Monley (36) 36pts
2nd Fred Dineley (25) 34pts
3rd Sandy Leiper (35) 33pts
Near Pins: A5 – Patrick Poussier, A8 – Bill Roycroft, B4 – John Pierrel, B6 – John Pierrel
Long Putts: A9 – Greg Prefrement, B9 – Peter Bye
The Growling Swan NAGA Award was once again won by the departing Niall Stuart and he accepted the award in good spirit. Max then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers.
Note: Growling Swan Golf welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan (formerly The Bunker Bar) in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 am with transport departing at 8.30 am. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to petermalcolmblackburn @gmail.com.
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00am on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454 005.
