The Pattaya Golf Society at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
The Pattaya Golf Society visited Khao Kheow on Monday, 7th January, to play a stableford competition on the C and B nines, on a warm and breezy day. The course is slowly improving all the while after the serious rain damage of the last two wet seasons and greens were running as quick as ever at the course.
The cut was at seventeen and under and the second flight saw Masashi Iizumi make third place with 31 points, just behind Alan Flynn’s 33 points in second. Fittingly, on his final round this trip, Pat Murphy came good with a very solid 34 points giving him his first win in ages.
In the top flight Steve Evans made the frame again with a 31 point score being enough for third place. In second Andrew Purdie again impressed with 35 points and only he knows why 23 points on the front nine were almost wasted with a wayward chip on the tenth that gnawed at his thoughts for three holes. This left Shuichi Kodaka as the only golfer to break par, winning the flight with the best score of the day, 37 points.
Elsewhere Michael Lindberg recorded the only birdie ‘2’ of the day, on C3, and the Booby Bevy went to John O’Sullivan for his lowest score of the day.
Rabbi’s free beer draw completed the day for Dave Lehane and drew the curtains on the proceedings at Khao Kheow when Shuichi Kodaka showed the field how to do it.
McIntosh gives it some welly
Pattaya Country Club was the venue for the Pattaya Golf Society on Wednesday, 9th January when the Soi Buakhao based group played a stableford competition on the recently revamped course. Fairways were dry, areas of GUR were not quite settled in, nor marked and greens were slow.
Quite whether the club has seen “vfm” for the upgrade remains in doubt as much of the back nine is “as was” except for a large yet unobtrusive bunker on the fifteenth, an enlarged sixteenth green and the demolition of the bulrushes around the water on the tenth and seventeenth. With no greater challenge than before the group expected fairly good scores and they were not disappointed.
Mike Wilsher, Larry Slattery, Dave Lehane, Alan Flynn and Larry Ang all managed 35 points and shared third place whilst Masashi Iizumi went one under with a steady 37 point return. The winner was Neil McIntosh who brutalised the back nine with a four under display for his handicap on his way to recording 40 points. Mike Wilsher recorded the only birdie ‘2’ of the day, on the sixteenth and Helene Lindberg gratefully accepted Rabbi’s free beer draw prize later.
Pattaya CC? The jury is still out.
Sumptuous Sumner
On Friday, 11th January the Pattaya Golf Society visited the popular course at Crystal Bay to play a stableford competition in two flights with the divisions cut at sixteen and under. The course was in fine condition and with the day set fair there was the very real prospect of some good scores. Indeed the full field average was to be almost 33 points.
In the second flight Jim Ferris followed his 39 points earlier in the week with 37 points this time to take third place, just one behind Gary Bolger’s 38. The flight winner was Alan Walker and his forty points represented his best round for a long while.
In the top flight John Hackett took third place with 37 points with Steve Evans taking second with 38 points. The winner was the current PGS gross Champion, Pete Sumner, on the eve of defending his title, and his round of gross 72, 44 points, was a sumptuous mix of power and accuracy. His golf on days like this is unstoppable and he will be the man to beat at Emerald next week.
There were birdie ‘2’s for Steve Evans (2), Rick Schramm, Pete Sumner, Alan Maxwell, John Hackett, Henry Mah, Dave Plaiter and Helene Lindberg whilst Yvonne Earley drew the boss’s free beer prize.
The Booby Bevy was awarded to Andrew Purdie after an excellent front nine again went haywire leaving him with the largest split figures of the day. However, inevitably Pete Sumner had set his stall out at Crystal Bay and the Annual Championship in a week’s time probably cannot come quick enough for him.
