PSC Golf from the Tropical Golf Group
Tuesday, Oct. 16, Pattana A &B – Stableford
Middle of the month and we found ourselves off for our monthly encounter at one of the more challenging and scenic layouts in the area. There is plenty of water and bunkers to avoid at Pattana while attacking 18 holes where the design differs adequately to create many different options to play each hole. And, at this point, still a reasonable low season green fee rate although the caddy and cart fees have gone up since our September visit, a possible sign of things to come as the transition to high season occurs.
Assigned to play the “A” & “B” nines, the longest of the possible combinations, and told that carts were restricted to the cart paths due to the daily afternoon/evening showers, it was once again “lift, clean, & place” through the green, which has become the norm rather than the exception.
Due to the smaller group of players this day there were no technical or “Best 9‘s” awards so it was straight to the 5 best stableford scores. Atop the podium with an excellent 39 points stood Andre Van Dyk (c/h 17), four points clear of Derek Brook (29) with his fine 35 point effort. Then it was into a count-back on 34 points for 3rd taken by John Davis (11) over Mashi Kaneta (15) and a further count-back on 33 points saw Don Carmody (30) edge out Dick Warberg and John Anderson for the fifth and final spot.
Friday, Oct. 19, Mt. Shadow – Stableford
The last group visit to Mountain Shadow was way back in March just as the high season was winding down and it was, as usual for this track, a tough outing with no one meeting their handicap. Why such a long time between visits one asks? Well, as said, it’s a tough track, and although the fairways and greens are average to above average and definitely playable, the unkempt condition of the area in general is definitely a drawback, what with such a large number of courses in the area to choose from.
With the extremely high and dense growth at the entrance, between fairways and along the property boundaries it almost seems as if the course was just recently carved out of a dense jungle. Shots hit into these areas were lost balls no question. No need to even bother trying to look. Therefore the challenge of the day and the round was to keep it generally straight and in the short grass. The course was not crowded and the pace of play, considering some extra time looking along the dense undergrowth was good.
The only other comment was with regard to caddies. It is that time of the year when the courses are filling out their caddy ranks after the low season and ramping up for the high season, an excellent chance of being assigned a new caddy.
With a relatively small group this day how would the players deal with the challenges the course had to offer? Leading the way was Dick Warberg (c/h 23) with a 30 point effort followed by John Davis (11) and Bob Britton (13), both with hard earned 27 points. With those results the answer has to be “Not Well” and we must say Mt. Shadow definitely won the day.
 |
 |
