The Billabong Bar Golf Society
Monday, April 17, Phoenix Gold – Stableford
Phoenix was the place to be on Monday, with the Ocean loop closed it was Mountain and Lakes being played and the course was in great condition with greens running true and fast. The day wasn’t too hot and with a nice breeze it was a pleasant day for golf.
With six groups playing we were away a little early and with no holdups a 4 hour round was in the offing. In the winner’s circle it was a three-way count back with the top 3 on 38 points. But first up was Lloyd Shuttleworth taking fourth place on a count back over Capt. Bob, both on 36 points. In the count back at the top, third spot went to Brad Jordison, second to his good mate Russ, and first place, courtesy of 24 points on the back-9 went to JJ Harney.
There were three 2’s, coming from JJ Harney, Lloyd Shuttleworth and Miss On, the only lady in the field today.
Wednesday, April 19, Phoenix Gold – 2-Person Better-Ball
Not our usual Wednesday venue but for reasons better known to the management of Green Valley they decided to close the complex for a two day holiday, so it was off to Phoenix for a 2 person better-ball competition. Today was the first playing of the Steve Balfour Memorial Trophy Tournament. Steve came from Edinburgh in Scotland and sadly passed away in his mid-30s one year ago. A good friend to all those at the Billabong, he has been sadly missed.
40 players were trying to be the first to get their names on the trophy and a big ‘thank you’ goes to the Tropical Bar, the home of the British Legion in Soi Kanoi, who donated the prizes for the near pins and George Barrie who, not surprisingly for a Scotsman, donated a bottle of 12 year old Glenfiddich whisky as a raffle prize. The 20,000 plus baht collected from the day will go to a Military Charity in Scotland, which was close to Steve’s heart and will be monitored by his family.
Miss Nu and Miss Pin took fifth place with 43 points just short of Miss Sa and Miss Noy who came good on the back nine with 8 holes registered. A countback was necessary to determine second and third places where Lloyd Shuttleworth and Miss Tan had 23 on the back-nine, but this was just one less than Peter Henshaw and Ken Hole who took the silver. The formidable pairing of Wayne Cotterell and his wife Miss Eng proved hard to beat, particularly as ‘Cottee’ had 24 points on the front-nine and 41 overall and they had room to spare with 50 points in total.
The near pins went to Ken Hole, Glyn Davies, Miss Noodle and the Billabong’s own detective Poirot, Gerard Lambert, who comes from Belgium and speaks perfect French. He was also drawn out of the hat to win the raffle.
