Phoenix Members G.O.L.F. Society
Friday, August 31, both Bill Hewitt and myself were awarded our presentation plaques for achieving a hole in one; Bills on Mountain 4 hole (possibly one of the hardest greens to hit at Phoenix let alone get a hole in one), and mine on Ocean 7 (probably the easiest hole to hit and record a hole in one). Both were recorded in the month of July of this year.
For Bill it was his fourth of his career so I suppose it was not so exiting as my own which was my first and only. Never mind, we can now boast having a 1 to a double figure on a golf hole at some stage in a career. The other thing that made mine a little sweater was that I have golf insurance in Thailand and they duly paid me 10,000 baht as a reward. Needless to say a far chunk of that went on the bar after the game. It would have been 15,000 baht if in a major tournament such as a PSC monthly medal.
Mike Gerrard and Bill Hewitt pose with their hole-in-one plaques.
On to the golf – and on Friday we had a full three groups out – perhaps a sign that people are coming back to Thailand for the oncoming high season? Our winner today was a Kristinn Helgason who, along with Clive Robinson, has been in the wilderness for some time (and it was great to see them back playing with us once again). Kristinn scored a superb 41 points to win by one shot from Bill Hewitt and claiming third place was Mukesh Thakker with 36 points.
We also decided to have a hidden pairs prize and guess what? Kristinn Helgason and Clive Robinson were the winners with a combined score of 75 points. Great fun!
Near pins went to Granville Swanton, Mukesh Thakker & Peter Rawling. The lucky draw prizes (donated by our hosts The Relax Bar) were awarded to Mike Gerrard (free massage), Kevin Joyce (free drink) and Peter Harris (free drink).
Onto Tuesday, September 4, and although the course is now getting into very good shape for the oncoming high season there is still the general puzzlement of some of the management decisions here. We are playing Lake & Ocean course at present and the marshals seem to think it is better for some groups to go out from one nine and others from the other nine. Sad to say the marshals are never around when both sets of players meet half way round which creates squabbles as to who has the honour.
Tuesday’s top three with two of the day’s sponsors.
After discussions with the management they agreed to stop this policy. However they went on to send all players from the Ocean course first. This means that everyone who is walking has to walk to the furthest tee box, then have a huge long walk from the Ocean 9th to the Lake 1st, and then a huge long walk from the Lake 9th to the car park and clubhouse. The other way round means that there is minimal walking from the first tee to the 18th green and car park. I am afraid it seems too sensible a solution. Never mind, we still love the place so onto the golf.
Again we had a bigger than normal turnout and played, once again, the Ocean first and Lake second (when will they learn?) Three players shared the first place with 35 points today and on count back it was yours truly who claimed first place, with Giorgio Baccioli second and Stuart Gordon third.
Normally we would just have joint first place but with Richard Baldwin and his beautiful lady, Ann, donating the sponsor’s prize we had to have a winner. The Ann’s Salon voucher was duly awarded to myself for me to go and have some part of my body pampered. Might have a blue rinse!
Near pin winners were John Bartley, Arthur Busch, Bob Neylon & Richard Baldwin. As usual the lucky draw prizes were donated by our hosts The Relax Bar and they were duly awarded to anyone who did not win anything else on the day. Recipients were Joris Goetshalkx (again), Matt Anderson (nice to see him back with us) and another new guy on holiday, Tom Musial.
For further information regarding Phoenix G.O.L.F Society or sea fishing, contact me (Mike) on 087 091 7565.
