IPGC Golf from The Haven
Monday, Nov. 28, Mt. Shadow – Stableford
CSS 74
1st Frank Hughes (20) 35pts
2nd Patrick Scullion (20) 33pts
3rd Erik Donnestad (5) 32pts
4th Darryl Burkett (12) 31pts
5th Garry Barling (8) 30pts
One of the shortest but certainly not the easiest courses in the area was the initial outing of the week for the Haven group. It was found to be in better shape than on recent visits, having benefitted from work by the greens-keepers but there were still enough problems for the CSS for the day to go out a couple of shots to 74 as most of the field struggled with the tight layout.
Frank Hughes was the best of the day at one over handicap having started slowly with just 16 points from his opening nine holes, with Patrick Scullion, having picked up a couple of pointers from watching Jordan Spieth the previous week, playing steadily to take second spot.
Erik Donnestad found the greens a little difficult and had to settle for third place a shot behind and one in front of Darryl Burkett, who suffered from a small nightmare halfway through his front nine but recovered well to take fourth place.
Garry Barling rounded out the podium after trailing off badly through the final four holes, gleaning just four points when in a good position.
Unsurprisingly there were no ‘2’s in either of the divisions.
Wednesday, Nov. 30, Pattana A & C – Stableford
Division 1 (0–15)
CSS 76 NC
(White tees)
1st Neil Skilton (3) 33pts
2nd Dale Walton (6) 33pts
3rd Garry Barling (8) 33pts
Division (16+)
CSS 76 NC
(Yellow tees)
1st Shuichi Kodaka (17) 30pts
2nd Brendan Dunne (28) 26pts
3rd Larry Gibb (21) 26pts
Two divisions were needed following a well-attended start with the first division playing from the white tees and the second from the yellow tees on the par 73 A and C nines.
The course as always was in tip top condition with the fairways and green demanding special mention, but the greens were about as fast as any could remember playing on in recent times and the longer the round progressed the bigger the problems that were imagined when the first putt was left above the hole or anywhere near the three-putt distance.
In the event, the best three scores went in strict handicap order in the first division where Neil Skilton ran out the winner of a three-way count back after returning 17, to leave Dale Walton in second place with 14 and Garry Barling in third with 12 points.
A very bedraggled second division was led in by Shuichi with a six over handicap round, with Brandan Dunne taking second place ahead of Larry Gibb after he won a count back with a better 13 to 9.
With the course playing so difficultly it was amazing that both rollover pots went in the 2s with Shuichi Kodaka cleaning out the second division and Neil Skilton and Garry Barling sharing the first division pot.
Friday, Dec. 2, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford
CSS 72
Division 1 (0–15)
1st Allan Hanlon (14) 38pts
2nd Erik Donnestad (5) 36pts
3rd Allan Flynn (14) 35pts
4th Rick Morgan (7) 33pts
Division 2 (16+)
1st John Tallett (23) 38pts
2nd Dave Howden (17) 36pts
3rd Brendan Dunne (28) 36pts
4th Fumiaki Matsuura (17) 35pts
Once again two divisions were need for the weekly visit to the recently redesigned and renovated Pattaya Country Club where the fairways as usual were firm and offering good distance from the tees. The greens on the back-nine are still a fair bit behand in development as compared with the front-nine but they are still very playable and all in all the course is a much better challenge following the redesign and reshaping of the greens.
Allan Hanlon took charge of the first division with a two-under handicap round after starting out with a terrific front half at three under handicap and with only a slight hiccup on hole 15 where he failed to score, finally winning by two from Erik Donnestad in second spot.
Allan Flynn took third, with Rick Morgan winning a count back over Rodney Nabbe for fourth with a better 16 to 15.
The second division was headed by John Tallett as he once again returned from some no pressure non-competitive rounds to again win big at two-under handicap and two in front of a count back for second that Dave Howden won with a better 14 to 12 on the last six over Brendan Dunne. That left Fumiaki Matsuura to take the last step on the podium in fourth place one more back.
There were no 2s in the second division but Allan Flynn and Allan Hanlon shared the first division pool with one each.
Back at The Haven there was a special farewell for Roar Berger, one of the original Haven members from 2000, who sadly passed away on Monday 28th November and will be sorely missed by many people both here in Thailand and his Norway home.
