Bunker Boys Golf Society
Monday, Dec. 19,
Mt. Shadow (white tees) – Stableford
1st Tony Scrambler (13) 37pts
2nd Geoff Parker (13) 36pts
3rd Andy Grey (27) 35pts
Near Pins: Nial Glover, Geoff Parker, Colin Greig (2)
A small group of only 14 players showed up at Mountain Shadow, which was in good condition with consistent greens despite them being on the slow side. A group of what appeared to be poor golfers teed off before our first group but play was brisk with no hold-ups.
Overall scoring was average with only a few golfers showing any form. First place on the podium went to Tony Scrambler who shot a very respectable 37pts, beating his handicap but was very keen to sell his set of Calloway clubs back at base. With that score perhaps he should reconsider that idea. Second place went to Geoff Parker who was still showing consistent good form after his win the previous week. One shot further back in third place was Andy Gray on 35pts.
Shot of the day went to Geoff Parker who pulled his tee shot left on the first par three, the ball hitting a tree and bouncing kindly back onto the green to give him a near pin award. Perhaps it’s all the billiard practice paying off.
Wednesday, Dec. 21, Greenwood B & C (white tees) – Medal
1st Colin Greig (10) net 73
2nd Frank Quinlan (33) net 74
3rd Neil Carter (14) net 74
Near Pins: Colin Greig (2), Nial Glover, Neil Carter.
Once again a small group of 14 players made the trip up 331 to the Greenwood course. Due to overnight rain the course was wet in places so the ‘pick, clean, and place’ rule was applied. The course was in excellent condition but with inconsistent greens that had the good putters confused.
Today’s medal round was played on B & C courses with a mixed bag of scores, some very respectable and a few not so good. Colin Greig showed that the lower handicap golfers come to the fore in a medal round, winning ahead of Frank Quinlan and Neil Carter who were both a shot back.
Our new slow play policy of putting the slower golfers off the back of the field seems to be working as the final four-ball came in one and a half holes behind the group in front, but fortunately there was no one behind them to complain.
Colin Greig won two near pins for the second time this week and people are now looking at ways to induce a bout of gall bladder pain to slow him down a bit.
A question that keeps arising after golf is why do some of the more consistent golfers who win or place week after week somehow never seem to lose any shots on their handicaps but the longer handicap players going through a bad patch are quickly put under review and have their handicaps cut by two to four shot based on their best two scores over the past year. Surely it would be fairer to handicap those players who play more than 70 games with PSC each year on the best 10 out of the last 30,40,or 50 games and not on only on the best 2?
Friday, Dec. 23, Plutaluang N & W – Stableford
1st Andy Grey (27) 39pts
2nd Michael Brett (20) 36pts
3rd Colin Greig (10) 33pts
Near Pins: Neil Griffin, Nial Glover, Michael Brett, Jimmy Carr.
Seventeen keen golfers assembled at the M Club for the trip to the Plutaluang Navy course which is not a favorite of many of the Bunker Boys due to the coarse nature of the grass as well as a few other issues such as the condition of the bunkers, which are a resting place for the numerous dogs.
On the way into the course, we noted that the South/East nines looked very busy so we were relieved to find we had been allocated the North/West courses. After a quick check-in we proceeded to the tee off area to find a couple of groups of locals waiting to play, however, we didn’t have to wait too long for our first group to commence play.
Overall the speed of play was on the slow side, which caused frustration for many golfers, as it was difficult to build any kind of momentum. It was noted that one of our group had adopted the Padraig Harrington approach to his game with multiple practice swings before addressing the ball. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarity ended. The slow play situation was not helped by a few caddies who showed a distinct lack of interest in proceedings and were always well behind the play.
The eventual winner Andy Grey was playing off twenty-seven when his UK handicap is fourteen. Needless to say, this had many scratching their heads. It can only be put down to the many vagaries of the PSC handicap system. It is also noted that newly returned Nial Glover won a near pin in every game he played this week.
The race for “Golfer of the Month” has narrowed down to a handful of players with Colin Greig leading the way closely followed by ‘Mr Consistency’ himself, Geoff Parker. With three games remaining there is time for Geoff to add to his already burgeoning collection of monthly trophies.
