IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at The Links Bar
Monday, August 24, Pattana A & B (white tees)– Stableford
Our five groups teed off on time and in excellent but windy weather, on a course which looked in fine fettle. As is normally the case here, fairways offered excellent lies and the greens were consistent and true. It’s just the bunkers which continue to attract negative comment, with their excessive and powder-like sand making a good escape nigh-on impossible. Overall however, a lovely course that offers a very good golfing experience.
We last played Pattana on July 20 and on that day Toby Glass won with 37 points. The previous visit was on June 20 – again won by Toby with 36 points. The only thing we can say with certainty is that this won’t happen again this year – this being Toby’s last round with us this trip.
In second with a credible 35 points was the consistent Jon Batty, one ahead of the two who tied for third; Alan Flynn and Huw Phillips.
Pattana B1 – one tough starting hole.
There was just the one ‘2’ today, on the tough A8. The 180-yard tee-shot over water to a pin positioned centre-right was made easier by a tail-wind. Huw Phillip’s tee-shot finished back left, leaving him an eighty-foot, left to right breaking downhiller. Try this shot 20 times and you may succeed once. Huw managed it in one. And this was after coming off the previous hole with a 4-putt. That putt worked out to be the equivalent of 10 baht per foot!
Back at the Links, John Tallett’s name was drawn for the lucky beer award while the booby bevvy went to an obviously out-of-sorts Larry Gibb for an uncharacteristically bad round.
Wednesday, August 26, Burapha – Medal
On Wednesday the Pattaya Golf Society visited Burapha to play a monthly medal competition on the C and D nines from the blue tees. It was a daunting prospect in a fairly strong wind and the changes of elevation made for some long holes and carries.
Undeterred the group got underway on time and good progress was made. Results went to form with the returning Alan Walker showing the septuagenarian had lost nothing of his guile during his absence and he finished with a share of third place, on net 76 with Jon Batty. Jon’s round was the best gross of the day, gross 83.
The win was shared by Huw Phillips and Stuart Thompson with net 72’s. Stuart is certainly working hard at his game since his horrific accident in Australia a couple of years ago and it is a miracle that he can even hit a golf ball again, such were his injuries. Huw Phillips is slap bang in form of course.
There were no birdie ‘2’s and the non-winner’s beer went to Gary Bolger whilst Mr Len bemoaned the absence of two very good friends which affected his round enormously. His consolation was the Booby Bevy. His friends? His drive and his putting! Let it not detract from a very good testing course on the day and some quality golf from the top two. For them the blues held no “blues”.
Friday, August 28, Phoenix (Mountain & Ocean) – Stableford
Strangely, the fairways appeared to have a better covering of grass three weeks ago than they did today. The four groups teed off on time in fine weather, with nothing leading anyone to believe that carts were not permitted on fairways. But that indeed turned out to be the case. The point being that such a rule would automatically invoke a “preferred lies” rule. With some of the field already through the first and well on their way up the second, it was too late to call in the rule.
The state of many fairways, especially on the Mountain nine, does justify preferred lies. Large tracts of fairway, often close to the greens, offer nothing but bare lies. There are no signs of white paint. Much of the Ocean nine fairways are scarified, but at least here the grass appears to be recovering well. In short, we would recommend playing preferred lies at Phoenix for the next month, at least.
Notwithstanding this, the greens are in fine fettle, which helped account for the good scoring, including four ‘2’s; Craig Thomas and Russell Exley on M8, Jon Batty on O5 and Mark Lang on O7 being the successful golfers.
To their credit, the three sharing third place all managed sub-par rounds of 37 points, whilst Craig Thomas, playing his first round on this trip, managed one better to secure the runner-up spot. Regular expat, Karl Flood, had one of his better days, securing a two-stroke winning margin thanks to a 40-point haul. Well played, all.
Back at the Links Mr. Len drew Murray Edwards name for the lucky beer draw whilst Alan Walker won the booby bevvy thanks to a 6-10 split between nines.
