PSC Golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Jan. 11, Burapha – Stableford
With the tour group heading off to Lotus Valley, it was up to Tawan to get everyone off on the A & B courses at Burapha. Unfortunately, and as luck usually goes, this had to be the day when Burapha decided to start 7 groups of Koreans right in front of our guys at 9am. As things go in Thailand, Tawan tried her best but the starter said he could do nothing as the group started late and the other 9’s were also busy.
And then the rains came down to make life even harder for our group. Fortunately most people were sympathetic to Tawan as it was really out of her control and she did the best under the circumstances. Nonetheless, apologies guys and we have since taken it up with Burapha and have been assured that it won’t happen again. I guess time will tell.
Ready for golf on day two at Royal Hills.
Considering the delay and rain stoppages, it was understandable that scoring wasn’t all that good, even from the white tees. In fourth place, winning on count back from Dennis Pelly was Tony Aslett with 34 points. Occupying third spot and on his last day on tour was Matt Pallier who dramatically improved his performances in the last two weeks of his stay.
It was very good to see John Fitzgerald in the prizes in second place with 37 points, but as the saying goes, the good corks always float to the top and Geoff Stimpson captured a great start to the year with his excellent 38 points to finish first and also record a ‘2’. There was only one other ‘2’ which was recorded by Peter Moon.
1st Geoff Stimpson (7) 38pts
2nd John Fitzgerald (21) 37pts
3rd Matt Pallier (20) 37pts
4th Tony Aslett (27) 34pts
Lotus Valley & Royal Hills Tour – Jan. 11-14
With a cozy group of 12 players heading off to the beautiful courses at Lotus Valley and Royal Hills, we set off early Monday morning first for Lotus Valley where our first group teed off just after 11.30. The course was in fabulous condition, and the staff were all great and the caddies (in general) a fair bit friendlier and attentive than at the average Pattaya outing.
Three players were tied on day 1 at 34 points, with George Scott taking third, Andre Coetzee second and Fidge Button winning on count back.
After golf, we drove a Google Maps inspired route to Royal Hills, which took just under an hour. Seems that Google Maps was smart enough to avoid the pot hole filled route which one would normally take, and even with 9 people in the bus listening to Sugar Ray’s music compilation, the ride felt pretty smooth and quick.
Next morning, we teed off at 9.30am from the white tees, where the lads were following a couple of bright young Korean scratch golfers playing from the black tees. Kim Danboise did his absolute best to pick up tips from these guys wherever his group caught up with them, to the extent that he spend hours even after the game trying to gain some skill from the young pros on the putting green. It worked for that day at least, and Kim managed to gain a lead with a great 37 points. Your scribe’s game also held together somewhat, and playing off 8 I managed to get a respectable 36 points. The rest of the guys didn’t do so well, and third place was captured by Steven Mann who only had 31 points.
Third day, and someone (i.e. me) had the stupid idea to play from the blues, “just to mix things up a bit”. It seemed rational at the time, since a good 1/3 of tees were white and blue together anyway, and I thought it would help the higher handicappers a bit since they got 3 extra shots on the slope and index, compared to the 1 shot that a low handicapper like myself got.
It turned out to be a hard day, with both myself and Kim falling completely out the bus with only 22 points each. Mickey Leighton captured third with 30 points while Steve Mann lost on count back to Steve Plant, who ended up as the victor with 31 points.
On to the fourth day and an early breakfast and check out before we set off just before 8am back to Lotus Valley. Again playing off the blues, Lotus Valley seems like a great course to play of the longer tees as there aren’t any carries that a short hitter can’t reach. The only challenge off the blues is the 215yrd par-3 17th hole, which was long and raised a few eyebrows.
Order of play was based on standings after the first round at Lotus Valley and the best of Royal Hills rounds and at this stage your scribe Andre was leading Kim Danboise by two shots. Both of us had good front nines but Kim was in the lead on the back nine and really turned on the pressure in the overall standings with a great birdie on the 14th hole to get within a shot and then drew level with a net par on hole 15.
So once again the game was drawn and all came to the last hole, with the advantage to Kim on count back. Playing safely (for a change in character), I just used a 6-iron for my 2nd shot and then had a 100yrds shot in. From there a par was achieved. Kim came up a bit short with his 3rd, but was on the green for 4 with a 10 foot breaking putt needed to win overall. Kim missed but still won the day, beating Mickey Leighton on count back with 34 points, with myself third on 33.
In the overall standings, your scribe (Andre Coetzee) managed to win by a shot with 103 points, beating Kim on 102 and George Scott with 94. Fourth was Frenchie with 92 points.
It was a great little tour with an exciting finish (at least for me), and it sets a good platform for future tours. If you are interested, we are conducting another short tour from 16-18 Feb to Soi Dao and Kabinburi.
Friday, Jan. 15, Green Valley – Stableford
1st Christopher Wilmott (16) 38pts
2nd John Stafford (15) 35pts
3rd Robert Finley (14) 35pts
4th Ken Hole (18) 34pts
5th Bob Lindborg (23) 33pts
With rain coming down already at the start it was clear that it was going to be a tough day out, which is why we allowed play under ‘lift, clean and place – fairways only’ rule.
Bob Lindborg came in with 33 points to finish fifth in the standings while Ken Hole took fourth one point better. Bob Finley was edged out of second place by John Stafford on count back, both with 35 points each but coming in three points clear of the field and taking top spot was newcomer Chris Wilmott, playing from a 16 handicap.
There were a total six ‘2’s on the day, so congratulations to everyone who had a good day on the course.
