PSC Golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Feb. 15, Burapha – Stableford
1st Geoff Stimpson (7) 43pts
2nd John Fitzgerald (22) 39pts
3rd Dennis Pelly (14) 38pts
4th Maurice Copan (13) 36pts
5th Bob Lindborg (25) 35pts
With many of the regular Outbackers deciding not to play at Burapha and save their energy for the Soi Dao tour, we ended up with just 20 players in total on Monday.
Group picture – Soi Dao Kabinburi Tour.
With only a handful of players not reaching 30 points, the course played relatively easy and with a slight breeze, the conditions where near perfect.
Ending in 5th place with 35 points was Bob Lindborg, one behind Maurice Copan in fourth while Dennis Pelly came in third with 38. John Fitzgerald posted 39 points to take second spot on the podium but the man of the day was Geoff Stimpson, scoring a fantastic gross 72 level par and 43 stableford points – a truly remarkable performance from a great player.
There was only one ‘2’ recorded on the day, well done to Barry Macintosh.
Soi Dao & Kabinburi Tour
3-Day Overall Scores
1st Andre Coetzee (8.4) 105pts
2nd Don Hachey (14.9) 101pts
3rd Bill Dartnell (27.8) 100pts
4th Peter Erikson (4.6) 98pts
5th Martin Grimoldby (5.5) 98pts
It was an early start for our group of 28 and not being sure how the roads and traffic would behave we set off early with a 3.5 hr Google Map predicted journey. As it turned out, the road was great and the journey turned out to be well under 3 hours. The new road going up to Soi Dao is beautiful. After most people checked in to the hotel, we set off to the start where Tawan took a few pictures (mostly of herself), and away the groups went.
Soi Dao G.C. has changed the tee boxes and with new paper scorecards (they haven’t printed proper ones yet), we quickly adjusted to let the A division play from the brown tees and the B division the option of the white or brown. Most players chose the brown, which turned out a mistake as the course was playing long and hard and had just had the front nine greens dressed the morning before we arrived.
Soi Dao start – with Jukka, Reijo, Nicholas and Keith Allen.
Surprisingly, even with the top dressing, our group thought the greens were running good and true, so once the course is settled I think it will turn out to be a great track again. Scoring on the day was miserable, with only Andre Coetzee exceeding 30 points out of the whole group to finish with 33 points. Not good to be winning the first day of the tour you organize by 4 shots over the next nearest competitor!
The next day we went off to Kabinburi where those travelling with partners first checked into the hotel before we set off for the further 30 minute ride to Hillside Country Home Club. We arrived early and were hoping to get off to a prompt start, but they had no caddies available.
We found the staff to be not so friendly here and although the course has a great design it’s currently poorly maintained, with bunkers not being raked, the tee boxes basically made of sand, and even one of the drink stops had no water to sell. On the plus side the greens were good but the group unanimously agreed that we will not be back here for at least another 5 years, sorry to say.
A few good scores did come in, with low marker Martin Grimoldby scoring a great one over par 73 gross to finish the day on 41 points.
A quick word about the Kantary Hotel where we stayed the second night as this is just one of the best hotels (considering you’re not in the tourist heartland) that you will find in Thailand: Great rooms, great service, a fantastic restaurant and breakfast, and not expensive. Well worth a try and this will definitely be on our next tour trip to this part of Thailand in August.
After checking out the next morning we set out for a 9.30am start at Kabinburi Sports Club, and with a few Michelle Wee look-alikes hanging about the driving range it was a bit of a mission to get the boys away from the driving range and to the start area.
We were hurried into a two-tee start with 3 groups on hole 1 and 4 groups on hole 4, which was a bit of a logistical nightmare but that was the only minor complaint on the day. The course was in fabulous condition, the caddies were friendly and the whole day was a pleasure. As a result, the scores were the best out of all three days and several fellas exceeded their handicaps in scoring, the best being Keith Allen with 40 points.
