The IPGC Monthly Members’ Tournament
Wednesday, April 6, Green Valley
The first Wednesday in April saw a large field of IPGC members gather at Green Valley for the latest IPGC Members’ Tournament of the year. The course was reasonably well presented and the weather stayed fine for long enough.
Each monthly member’s tournament provides three winners in the divisions and one from the ladies, who will go forward to the finals to compete for the Gold and Silver Medals later in the season. In addition the tournaments will also be used to determine the IPGC Gentleman Player of the Year, with between 1 and 15 points to be won in each division every month, dependant on final positions, which will then be aggregated for the year to establish the overall winner. As usual the first division contests a stroke play format whilst the second, third and Ladies’ division play Stableford.
In the first division the competition for the minor placings was very close with Rob Lamond taking third place with net 71, one shot behind Kari Kuparainen’s net 70. The winner by a country mile was Thai golfer Wichai Tananusorn who played his personal best round of gross 74, net 66. Imagine what his score would have been if he had not recorded a triple bogey on the ninth!
The second division played stableford and high scores were a feature again as Kari Aarnio took third with 37 points and Larry Slattery finding his place as runner-up with 38 points. The flight winner was Russell Gilroy, performing to his best with 42 points.
The Third division was won by Jomtien golfer Burnie Sinclair with 39 points, just easing past Rod Howett on 38 and Paul Hartley on 36.
The Ladies’ winner was Orawan Meeraka with 35 points, leaving Pranee Bossett and Anna Svortii to scrap over the minor placings.
In the ‘2’s competitions there were only four birdies, all in the top flight, with Wichai Tananusorn and Bob Patterson sharing the spoils with the brace of birdies recorded by Kari Kuparainen. Near pin winners are reported below.
After the tournament the golfers enjoyed the usual excellent presentation buffet at Siam Cats in Jomtien. The function and prizes were generously sponsored as always by the IPGC, and those who had contributed to the success of the day were warmly thanked. They included the perpetual Registrar Glyn Evans, Starter John Mason, results coordinator Stephen Beard and the hard working event organiser Russell Exley. The official prize-winners are listed below but the full list of results can be seen on the excellent official IPGC website at http://www.ipgc.org
Division 1
1st Wichai Tanasusorn (8) net 66
2nd Kari Kuparainen (6) net 70
3rd Robert Lamond (6) net 71
Division 2
1st Russell Gilroy 42pts
2nd Larry Slattery 38pts
3rd Kari Aarnio 37pts
Division 3
1st Burnie Sinclair 39pts
2nd Rod Howett 38pts
3rd Paul Hartley 36pts
Ladies
1st Orawan Meeraka 35pts
2’s: Kari Kuparainen (2), Wichai Tanasusorn, Bob Patterson
Near Pins: Wichai Tanasusorn, William Chang, Doug Lynch, Pranee Bossett, Kari Kuparainen, Charlie Sheppard, Chris Walsh, Orawan Meeraka, Bob Patterson, Joe McArdle, Paul Hartley
