PSC Golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, April 4, Treasure Hill – Stableford
Fifteen competition golfers (plus 3 of Ricey’s visiting family) loaded into 2 vans for the trip to Treasure Hill. The roadworks on 331 are improving all the time, so the trip took only about 50 mins.
Now into low season, we are few in numbers, and so was the golf club on the day. Why you ask? With a great price of 1200 baht for green fee, caddy and cart, and a course in excellent condition we were surprised to be told to start when ready, and with no one in front of us, our first 4-ball finished in a tick under 4 hours.
Alex Field (left) with Mike Gosden.
Treasure Hill is regarded as a course where playing to handicap is a good result, but today we had 4 of the 15 players score 36 or better. Playing from the yellow tees we were headed up by Piere Cere with a great 39 points, followed by the “always about the place” Alex Field on 37. A count back was needed down to the last 6 to separate 2 players on 36 points, with another regular on the podium, Ebrahim, edging out John Anderson for third spot.
1st Piere Cere (11) 39pts
2nd Alex Field (18) 37pts
3rd Ebrahim (17) 36pts
4th John Anderson (28) 36pts
Near Pins: Alex Field (2), Bill Steinman (6), Alex Field (13), Ebrahim (17)
Long Putts: Ebrahim (9), John Edwards (18)
Thursday, April 7, Pleasant Valley – Stableford
As we assembled at The Swan all golfers showed up enthusiastically with eager anticipation on playing that great golf course Pleasant Valley, being a good 5 months since we last journeyed there.
(Left to right) Pierre Cere with Aden and Meagen Page.
Twenty six on the starting sheet but alas only twenty players as Cindy Lauper (Sandy Leiper) failed to show, unlike Sandy!
This is a great course in good nick, sometimes renowned for having a bit too much water on fairways but there is no real criticism that you can put on this course. Fairways today were lush, greens were true and generally speaking caddies were good as well.
I knew this was a day of some great scores with having (myself) scored 16 points after 7 holes. The writing was on the wall that we were in for some excellent scores and as you will read we were not let down in that department.
We went from the white tees, with the fairways having some run this suited both the big hitters and the not so big hitters, resulting in a very smart choice for the day.
This course is definitely improving as the years go by and with the very affordable golfing prices, friendly staff and caddies all eager to help, it would be no surprise to see this course frequented by us again soon.
Mike Gosden said goodbye to all in a way that he knows best, he let his clubs do the talking, Mike heads back to Aussie for a week or two to fix a few things. Alex Field continued on taking out A Grade with a very neat 41 points. Capturing the next two podium places were Phil Taylor and Peter Bailey.
The coach (Mike Gosden) blitzed the players in B Grade with a fantastic score of 45 points while filling the minor places were Andrew Allen and Grahame Buckingham, Andrew winning a close count back to take second spot.
Div A.
1st Alex Field (18) 41pts
2nd Phil Taylor (17) 40pts
3rd Peter Bailey (14) 39pts
Div B.
1st Mike Gosden (19) 45pts
2nd Andrew Allen (30) 39pts
3rd Graham Buckingham (24) 39pts
Near Pins: 5th – John Edwards, 8th – Simon Niven, 13th – Steve Younger, 17th – Graham Buckingham
Long Putt: 9th – Peter Bailey, 18th – Graham Buckingham
Note: The GS is a “friendly” golf outlet and caters for and encourages all golfers, young and old, male or female to have a hit on any of our weekly outings. We generally play Mondays and Thursdays at one of the many fine golf courses in and around Pattaya. Please contact Peter Grey if you are interested in playing on 0861 503086
The Growling Swan also caters to the bowls enthusiasts. Bus transport departs the GS on Sundays at 10 AM when they go for open, grass bowling at The Retreat. Please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454005 if you wish to partake. The cost including return bus transport, bowling fees and a hot lunch is about 350 baht, so great value for a day out!
