IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at Rabbi’s Elephant Bar
On Monday, 15th October, the Pattaya Golf Society travelled to a very soft and saturated Green Valley to play a stableford competition. The recent stormy spell has cast a shadow over the usually fine course, leaving fairways very soft to the touch and greens very slow and inconsistent. Fairways are pitted with footprints and greens are sanded in an effort to dry them up.
If truth be known the course should not have been open, as at Laem Chabang at the time of writing, . However the field made a good fist of it with Ken Grimes holding his own with 33 points for third and soulmate Robbie Taylor edging himself into second with 35 points. The winner was Larry Slattery, recently returned from familiar conditions in Ireland, and his score of 37 points was remarkable in that the course was barely playable.
There were no birdie ‘2’s and Jeff Cohen picked up the Booby Bevy for announcing a pair of ‘2’s on his card, only for the recorder to note that one was in the “tens” column and the other was a “unit”! It was also fitting that Masanori Takano won the free beer draw having rushed to play after a late arrival from Japan. It had been a disappointing return to Green Valley for the PGS.
Taylor walks it
The Pattaya Golf Society travelled to Crystal Bay on Wednesday, 17th October, to play a stableford competition on the C and B nines, on a course which was heavily saturated with the recent storms and on which carts were excluded for the day.
The group was set to squelch around the course on fairways which showed no run, but the greens, though soft, were in good consistent condition. Apart from a brief shower midway round the day stayed fair but heavily humid.
Amazingly scores were very good with a full field average of 31 points and in second place were Larry Slattery and Wichai Tananusorn with 37 points each. Walking a golf course for the first time ever with PGS was Robbie Taylor and the experience did him no harm as he produced an excellent card of 38 points to win the day handsomely.
Dave Edwards recorded the only birdie ‘2’ of the day on C4 and he also picked up the Booby Bevy award for the largest split figures of the day, twenty and fourteen.
Rabbi’s free beer draw was well appreciated by Peter Ditz on his return from a summer in his native Austria. What could have been a dismal day at Crystal Bay ended in fine style with some excellent performances and no shortage of fun.
Edwards and Ramsay survive at Treasure Hill
The Pattaya Golf Society made a brave call on Friday, 19th October when they fulfilled a longstanding booking at Treasure Hill for a stableford competition off the white tees, in two flights cut at sixteen and under. The course is legendary for its toughness and playing at the height of the rain season made demands on all golfers.
Amazingly the course was full, the golfers being attracted by a generous Friday promotion, but with the help of Khun Wichai play got underway before time. The fairways were dry with run and the greens were fine, the front nine being a little slower than the back.
In the second flight Ian Rowson and Alan Walker shared third place with 30 points each, just one behind Margaret Wilkinson and an excellent 31 points in second. The flight winner was Ronnie Ramsay who battered the length of the track with his strength and wrung out 33 points for a well deserved win.
In the top flight Ron Matthews, Tony Thorne, Garry Hookey and Larry Slattery all posted 29 points for third place whilst Wichai Tananusorn posted the best gross figures of 86 to take second place with 31 points. The winner – and doesn’t he love the course – was Dave Edwards, with 33 points.
The only birdie ‘2’ of the day was secured by Neil McIntosh on the seventeenth and the highlight of the presentation was an award made to Larry Slattery to commemorate him starting the 20,000th PGS competition round since the “reinvention” of the group in May 2005. It had been a memorable day at Treasure Hill.
