PSC Golf from The Growling Swan
Monday, Sept. 2, Mountain Shadow – Stableford
Time to return to one of our favourite golf courses, Mountain Shadow and its popularity was proved by the excellent field of 23 golfers that were signed up to play.
As we assembled at The Growling Swan welcomes were handed out to Paul Kennedy from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and also Pat Roche from Surrey in the UK. We got away from the GS a couple of minutes ahead of schedule at 8.28 am in 2 mini vans and headed up number 7, making good time and arriving at the course 45 minutes later to find the venue practically deserted.
Kev Waycott, Niall Stuart & Graham Buckingham.
After leisurely going through our preparation we were invited to tee off and after choosing the blue tees we sent our first four ball away 15 minutes early at 9.45 am. The weather was hot and humid & the golf course was in excellent conditions with lush fairways and well kept greens but perhaps more attention should be paid to the bunkers as some of them were fairly ordinary.
We proceeded at a cracking pace, with Grunter showing us the way with some good golf and the full round was completed in the good time of four hours on the dot. The company had been great, the golf not too bad and the course as mentioned previously was very good.
We had 2 Grades – A Grade for handicaps 0 to 17 and B Grade for handicaps 18 & over with 4 places in each grade. There were also rewards for nearest the pins on the four par threes and longest first putts on the 9th & 18th greens.
Paul Hack, Peter Grey & Alain Taddei.
The winner of the A Grade section was Kevin “Wayco” Waycott with a fine 36 points, followed by your writer, Peter Blackburn (18 point back nine) who in a count back for second & third just pipped Martin “Toddy” Todd (16 point back nine) with both having 33 points. Another count back was required to decide fourth place with two on 32 points and it was Ebrahim (17 point back nine) who prevailed over John Pierrel (16 point back nine). Graham “Grunter” Buckingham was the winner of B Grade with a very good 37 points and Dave Neal was second with 33 points.
There was a three-way count back to decide third and fourth spots with the three having 27 points and it was Max “Corsets” Bracegirdle (16 point back nine) who took third place from Pat Roche (14 point back nine) with Patrick Poussier (10 point back nine) just missing out.
A Flight (0-18)
1st Kevin Waycott (11) 36pts
2nd Peter Blackburn (11) 33pts
3rd Martin Todd (8) 33pts
4th Ebrahim (16) 32pts
B Flight (19+)
1st Graham Buckingham (23) 37pts
2nd Dave Neal (22) 33pts
3rd Max Bracegirdle (25) 27pts
4th Pat Roche (18) 27pts
Near Pins: 5th – Gerd Riedler, 8th – Kevin Waycott, 15th – Ebrahim, 17th – Martin Todd
Long Putts: 9th – Martin Todd, 18th – Mark West
The Growling Swan NAGA Award, (awarded to the golfer who has the worst score on the day and discreetly their score is not made public) was won by Niall Stuart (two in a row) and he accepted & wore the award with pride.
Thursday, Sept. 5, Crystal Bay C & A – Stableford
Well, they came out of the woodwork for this one as 36 golfers were signed up to play another of our favourite courses, Crystal Bay. We assembled at The Growling Swan and handed out warm welcomes to Adrian Zamell from Melbourne, Gavin Garfield from Sydney and the returning Frank Donnelly after a month in Vietnam and Jason Schembri back from Melbourne for a couple of weeks. It was sadly time to say farewell to Brad “Bad” Todd who is returning to Perth after a month’s holiday here in Pattaya.
Three mini vans plus were required to transport the group and we departed the GS 5 minutes behind schedule (Peter Grey slept in & was running late) and headed North up Sukhumvit. 45 minutes later we arrived at the golf course to find it not very busy and were allocated the C & A nines in that order. The weather was overcast but fine although very humid as our first of 9 four balls teed off on C1 10 minutes ahead of schedule at 9.50 am and with groups in front of us we proceeded at a steady pace.
The condition of the golf course was super and there was absolutely no excuse for good golf and as the results came in later that was indeed the case. We did slow down somewhat due to the heat, taking a couple of drink breaks and the round was completed in four hours and twenty minutes after a very enjoyable game with excellent company.
We had 2 Grades – A Grade for handicaps 0 to 17 and B Grade for handicaps 18 & over with 7 places in each grade. There were also rewards for nearest the pins on the four par threes and longest first putts on the A9 & C9 greens.
A magnificent 43 points gave Paul “Hacky” Hack first place in A Grade with Kevin Waycott second on 40 points and Peter Bye third with 39 points. In fourth spot came Sal Brizzi on 38 points and with 3 golfers on 37 points a count back resulted in Martin Todd (21 point back nine) finishing fifth from J.J. Harney (17 point back nine & 12 points on the last 6 holes) in sixth place with your writer Peter Blackburn (17 point back nine & 11 points on the last 6 holes) finishing seventh.
Alain “Inspector Clouseau” Taddei took out the B Grade with a fine 41 points, 2 points ahead of Fred Dineley in second place. With 2 players on 37 points a count back was required which resulted in Tom MacMahon (19 point back nine) finishing third from Frank “Woody” Donnelly (18 point back-nine) in fourth spot. Graham Buckingham was fifth with 36 points and Thientong Charoenrung finished sixth on 33 points with Max “Corsets” Bracegirdle in seventh spot on 31 points.
A Flight (0-17)
1st Paul Hack (11) 43pts
2nd Kevin Waycott (11) 40pts
3rd Peter Bye (14) 39pts
4th Sal Brizzi (7) 38pts
5th Martin Todd (8) 37pts
6th J.J. Harney (13) 37pts
7th Peter Blackburn (11) 37pts
B Flight (18+)
1st Alain Taddei (18) 41pts
2nd Fred Dineley (26) 39pts
3rd Tom MacMahon (18) 37pts
4th Frank Donnelly (20) 37pts
5th Graham Buckingham (23) 36pts
6th Thientong Charoenrung (19) 33pts
7th Max Bracegirdle (25) 27pts
Near Pins: A5 – Jason Schembri, A8 – Gerd Riedler, C4 – Kevin Waycott, C7 – Adrian Zamell
Long Putts: A9 – J.J. Harney, C9 – Ron Gillett
The Growling Swan NAGA Award was well won by Growling Swan Mine Host, Peter Grey and he accepted & wore the award with pride. Max then kindly paraded Deefa the Dog and of course collected many donations for the needy in Pattaya from our generous Growling Swan Golfers.
Note: Growling Swan Golf, the home of friendly golf in Pattaya welcomes golfers of any persuasion – low & high handicappers alike, female golfers and beginners. We generally play Mondays & Thursdays, meeting at The Growling Swan (formerly The Bunker Bar) in Soi Chaiyapoon at 8.00 am with transport departing at 8.30 am. For bookings or more information please contact Peter on 0806 351 386 or email to [email protected].
We also play bowls out of the Growling Swan every Wednesday and Sunday. Sunday is Lawn Bowls and Wednesday is Indoor Bowls. All are welcome and for anyone that is interested the transport leaves The Growling Swan at 10.00am on each of those mornings. For more information please contact Paul Rennison on 0843 454 005.
