Cobbam & Smith battle to the line

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Colin Smith (centre) with Frank Carnovale (left) and Bryan Barrell (right).
Colin Smith (centre) with Frank Carnovale (left) and Bryan Barrell (right).

PSC Golf Pattaya Links Golf Society

Wednesday, Sept. 12, Khao Kheow A & B – Stableford

A Flight

1st Les Cobban (9) 40pts

2nd Colin Smith (13) 40pts

3rd Paul Smith (4) 39pts

4th Wayne Peppernell (15) 37pts

B Flight

1st Len Jones (29) 36pts

2nd Ken Ishikawa (21) 36pts

3rd Mike Firkin (24) 33pts

4th Andy Stormouth (18) 32pts

Near Pins (par 3s): Wayne Peppernell (A3), Peter Henshaw (A5), Sunny Khanna (B3), and Steve Mahoney (B8)

Long Putts: Les Cobban (A9), Paul Smith (B9).

Near Pin (Par 5s): Paul Smith (A2), Les Cobban (B2).

Heavy overnight rain eased to a drizzle as golfers made their way to Links Bar for our appointment at Khao Kheow Country Club.

As expected when there is the hint of rain about, there were some late cancellations, although there was one message at 5.05am! Wake up call for Len. This left a healthy field of 26 players.

A phone call to the course before we departed confirmed our suspicions that carts were allowed only on the paths and, once we hit the fairways, it was certainly a no brainer by the KK management, as the course had also received overnight rain.

Considering this, Khao Kheow A and B nines were in very good condition, and the greens seemed to suffer no ill effects from the wet, as they played as good as ever here, perhaps a tad slower initially.

We might have expected some below average scores for today, but we would have been wrong, as there were some excellent scores turned in.

A Flight saw a bunch up at the top with Les Cobban and Colin Smith going to the countback to decide who had the better 40 points. Les managed 21 to Colin’s 17 back nine to take the win.

Third spot was won by Paul Smith scoring a sometimes winning score of 39 points, and fourth place was a surprised Wayne Peppernell on 37 points. After hearing the first three scores, he reckoned 37 was not good enough!

B Flight didn’t make it to the heady 40 points mark, but we can certainly take nothing away from Len Jones and Ken Ishikawa who both had 36 points, with Len taking the win on countback.

Third place went to Mike Firkin with a neat 33 points, while visitor Andy Stormouth rounded out the podium with 32 points on a countback.

Best nines by non-winners came from Tommy Marshall (front 20pts) and John Pierrel (back 17pts).

Friday, Sept. 14, Plutaluang – Stableford

A Flight

1st Petur Petursson (5) 38pts

2nd Steve Truelove (7) 38pts

3rd Peter Kissick (11) 35pts

4th Colin Smith (13) 35pts

B Flight

1st Garry Hookey (19) 34pts

2nd Donal McGuigan (19) 33pts

3rd Colin Service (17) 32pts

4th Mike Firkin (24) 31pts

Near Pins: Steve Truelove (E2), Mike Honey (E5), Garry Hookey (S4), Mike Firkin (S7)

Links Bar has not been to this course for a very long time, and it was thought a visit to check it out was worth a try. The prices are some of the lowest around and there are four nines to choose from (well you don’t actually get a choice.) Today we played the South and East combination from the white tees with two flights split at 15.

Considering the amount of rain lately, the course was in very good condition with fairways lush but, of course, wet in places. Some lark reckons he found some dry spots..

The greens here have never been called quick but they are in very good condition and play truly with just enough pace, however, there were some during the round that did vary from that somewhat.

We can’t imagine the conditions favored them especially, but of the three single figure handicappers in the field, two of them had to be split by countback with 38 points each. Petur Petursson had one more point on the second nine to beat Steve Truelove into second place.

The next two places went to Welshmen with Peter Kissick taking third on countback over Colin Smith, also winning a countback over unlucky George Muller All scored a very handy 35 points.

B flight was cut and dried with Garry Hookey having a nice little win with 34 points. In second place was Donal McGuigan scoring a consistent 33 points ahead of Colin Service on 32 and Mike Firkin with 31 points.

The third member of the single figure handicaps, Garry Barker (3) also picked up a prize for having the best front nine for non winners with 20 points while Wayne Peppernell had the best back nine on 16.