PSC golf from The Outback Golf Bar
Monday, Oct. 7, Burapha – Stableford
Today was supposed to be Andy Butterworth’s B’day Bash but the weather continued to have other ideas about any of us enjoying golf for the time-being, with another serious overnight deluge which continued well into the morning. So the majority of players decided to withdraw (and nobody could really blame them for that) but eleven intrepid golfers decided to give it a whirl, playing the A and B nines from the whites. As it happened the rain turned to light intermittent rain and on a couple of holes, the sun even tried to come out but with lift clean and place through the greens, the lies were still very difficult.
Under the conditions, John Stafford had a great score of 37pts to win from Gordon Clegg (36pts) with Greg Hill back in third on 33. Andy kindly left the four nearest pins in place; two were won by Greg Hill with Craig Meiklejohn and John Stafford getting the other two. Greg Hill topped a great day by having the only ‘2’.
1st John Stafford (15) 37pts
2nd Gordon Clegg (28) 36pts
3rd Greg Hill (20) 33pts
Wednesday, Oct. 9, The Emerald – Stableford
19 Outbackers returned to Emerald today, after a couple of month’s absence; one to see if the condition of the course had improved and two, to try to get away from this persistent rain.
(From the left): Muzza, Tim, Wayne and Rosco.
The first group got away at 9:20 with a very black sky overhead and it didn’t take long after a few gentle spots for the heavens to open yet again. The five groups had all teed off by this time and the last group had nearly completed the first hole when we all decided to return to the clubhouse to wait the rain out.
Rod Crosswell.
After an hour we ventured out again to a very wet course but after a few holes the course started to drain just fine and the game was on. There were still few bits of GUR but those areas should be gone in about 4 weeks time, when we shall return.
Welcome back to Ian Ashenden who joined us today to win Div A playing off scratch with a very fine 70 gross (38pts), from John Greenhalgh on 37.
Div B didn’t score quite so well as Gordon Clegg (28) took the win with 35pts from Tony Louch in second with 30.
Div. 1
1st Ian Ashenden (0) 38pts
2nd John Greenhalgh (14) 37pts
Div. 2
1st Gordon Clegg (28) 35pts
2nd Tony Louch (21) 30pts
Friday, Oct. 11, Green Valley – Stableford
Considering that there a good many absentees due to the Chiang Rai/Mai tour, an excellent turnout of 31 Outbackers played today at Green Valley with blue skies making a change from the last couple weeks of heavy down pours.
John O’Connor.
Today’s competition was kindly sponsored by Andy Butterworth, whose birthday was the previous Monday when the comp was cancelled due to rain.
The course was a bit soggy underfoot in certain parts and some of the greens were a bit scabby, largely due to the bad weather we have had; but all in all the course played well.
The scoring was amazingly good, particularly from the many members who now play here regularly, but it was outsider John Greenhalgh who was the overall winner with an excellent 40pts, to follow up his 37pts (2nd place) on Wednesday at Emerald.
Paul Greenway won Div A with 38pts, beating John O’Keefe on c/b and Bruce Milner won Div B, also with 38. Welcome back to John Dearden, who took second, heading a three way count back on 34.
Thanks to Andy for food provided back at the Outback Bar after the game and for some more near pin vouchers which went to Paul Greenaway (4th & 9th), Sel Wegner (12th) and Keith Allen (16th).
There were four ‘2’s from Paul Bourke & Paul Greenaway (4th) and Paul Bourke & John O’Keefe (12th).
Overall
1st John Greenhalgh (14) 40pts
Div.1
1st Paul Greenaway (9) 38pts
2nd John O’keefe (14) 38pts
3rd Paul Bourke (9) 37pts
4th Dennis Pelly (9) 35pts
Div. 2
1st Bruce Milner (17) 38pts
2nd John Dearden (22) 34pts
3rd Mark Kembrey (18) 34pts
4th Ken Hole (17) 34pts
Thursday, Oct. 10, Santiburi G.C. – Stableford
Leaving the hotel in Chiang Rai at 8.30am, Santiburi is perhaps no more that 25 minutes away and upon our arrival the course looked absolutely stunning as usual, with a quite a heavy dew on the grass and the greens just recently swept clear. Everything looked set for a great day out and as seems to be the norm when we come here, we had the golf course to ourselves, true millionaire’s golf. The most incredible value for money and where else can you can still get two beers, a water and change from 100 baht; please don’t ever change it Mr. Singha! A wonderful course and great hospitality.
The Aussie visitors stole the first day, playing from a short white tee box, as John O’Connor and Wayne Waywood headed the field both with 41pts. Our own Muzza & Rosco matched the same score to take third and fourth place and another visitor, Anton Rowbottam (37pts) took the final podium place, seeing off three other players with the same score, in the process.
There were two ‘2’s from Wayne Waywood and John O’Connor.
1st John O’Connor (17) 41pts
2nd Wayne Waywood (16) 41pts
3rd Murray Hart (14) 41pts
4th Rosco Langoulant (13) 41pts
5th Anton Rowbottam (17) 37pts
Friday, Oct. 11, Happy City Golf Resort – Stableford
Happy City Golf Resort covers an enormous amount of real estate, with a unique 29 holes (the owners claim the only 29-hole course in the world) but it might be a little harsh to say that’s likely to be their only claim to fame.
Built with Korean money, there are basically three nines – two of which (A & B) have 10 holes and at any one time the management will rest a hole to carry out maintenance work. In theory a great idea but a little confusing when it comes to working out stroke index for the each hole; today the toughest hole was omitted, so being the nine with the odd indexes, 3 became 1, and 5 became 3 and so on. Our back nine was the C loop, which has the more conventional nine holes, indexed from 1 to 9, so you just had to double them! Confused – Easy really!
The course is still new and is fairly open and mainly lies on flat ground with an abundance of water hazards which apparently overflowed their banks a couple of months ago and the whole place was underwater. The residual effect is still to be seen where grass hasn’t regrown properly and the rough on the C loop in particular, was very wet.
Work on the resort accommodation which consists of three large condominium blocks, seems to be virtually non-existent and one wonders if the developers have bitten off a little more than they can chew. The Clubhouse isn’t finished either and the building attached to the two tier driving range is being used as the changing rooms, pro-shop and restaurant; all of which were adequate even if the food was slow coming out.
Generally the course was well favoured by the group as Rod Crosswell found himself at the top of the stack with an excellent 38pts, followed home by Tim Knight (37) who appears to be finding his form up here and the ever consistent, Wayne Waywood was third also with 37, losing on c/b. Rosco fought back well after a poor start to take fourth beating our organiser for Chiang Rai, Steve Mann also on c/b both with 34.
There were two more ‘2’s today from Stefan Hoge & General Jack.
1st Rod Crosswell (14) 38pts
2nd Tim Knight (24) 37pts
3rd Wayne Waywood (16) 37pts
4th Rosco Langoulant (13) 34pts
5th Stephen Mann (11) 34pts
Saturday, Oct. 12, Santiburi G.C. – Stableford
Our last day in Chiang Rai we were back on Santiburi, still bathed in sunshine and for a Saturday, just unbelievably virtually empty, which enabled us to tee off early which in turn meant that with any luck, we could arrive in Chiang Mai in daylight. There was a vote taken on Thursday whether to play the white tees again of play the longer blues, the blues got the vote – on the way to the course we had another vote and still the blues won.
Going out in reverse order, Brett, Bob St., Ron & Johannes led the way with the leaders, Muzza, Rosco, Tim and Wayne going out last. The course was appreciably longer but the scoring, although not as high as from the shorter whites, still remained very acceptable with a very surprising name at the top, that of the General with 37pts, beating Anton on count back. It came as a big surprise as Jack rarely plays and certainly not three days in a row and even more so after wiping the first and third hole, after which he said – whose bright idea was it to play from the blues?
Pat Quinlivan had his elbow all strapped up, suffering from gout or was it an illegal aid to help keep his arm straight – whichever it was, he beating travelling companion Tony Pieroni on c/b, both with 36.
Congratulations to Wayne Waywood for winning the overall comp with a total of 112pts with Rosco two points back on 110. Five further back was Tim Knight, who had a good week with Muzza in fourth on 104 and Shane & Jack sharing fifth with 103.
There were four more ‘2’s from Murray Hart, Pat Quinlivan & Bob St. Aubin (12th) and Pat got another on the 17th, bringing the total in Chiang Rai to eight.
1st Jack Moseley (20) 37pts
2nd Anton Rowbottam (17) 37pts
3rd Pat Quinlivan (15) 36pts
4th Tony Pieroni (17) 36pts
5th Rosco Langoulant (13) 35pts
Overall
1st Wayne Waywood 112pts
2nd Rosco Langoulant 110pts
3rd Tim Knight 105pts
4th Murray Hart 104pts
T5th Shane Crane 103pts
T5th Jack Moseley 103pts
Note: The Outback Golf Bar is situated about 6km from Sukhumvit Road along Soi Siam Country. Call Jack on 081 578 1956.
