Habgood sacrifices wedge, wins medal competition

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PSC golf Bunker Boys @ The Bowling Green

Monday, March 19, Crystal Bay G.C. (B and C courses) – Medal

It’s not so long ago that the Bunker Boys used to play alternate Medal and Stableford competitions week in and week out, but many members seem to have lost their taste for the pressure of medal events, and we’ve bowed to the pressure and played less and less. Anyway, today there was a good turnout of 22 players for the only medal competition of the month.

One of the prominent voices against playing medal events has been Peter Habgood, and he was heard to say that he wouldn’t have turned up today if he’d remembered we were playing a medal round. It’s no surprise to anyone then, that Peter had a great day and won the honours with a round of net 67! This included an 8 on the par 4 tenth hole, where after a number of failed chips, he took his wedge, held it at an angle off the ground and stamped on the shaft, the result being another club needing a new shaft. Peter, when will you ever learn – perhaps the winnings will go some way towards (yet another) new shaft!

Peter Habgood minus pitching wedgePeter Habgood minus pitching wedge

A Flight

1st Keith Norman (11) net 73

2nd Geoff Cox (14) net 73

3rd Takeshi Hakozaki (13) net 73

B Flight

1st Peter Habgood (19) net 67

2nd Dave Ashman (16) net 69

3rd Neil Griffin (28) net 77

Near Pins: Dave Ashman, Mike Lloyd and Raleigh Gosney (2).

Wednesday, March 21, Mountain Shadow G.C. – Stableford

We were scheduled to play Treasure Hill today, but after receiving a number of reports that the greens there are unplayable at the moment, we made a late switch to Mountain Shadow. The decision followed a quick survey of members and with final approval from PJ, it was accepted by everyone except John Hughes, who said he hated it there and couldn’t play the course. In his opinion it was all a conspiracy to stop him from winning golfer of the month title!

As John’s was the only voice of dissent, he was of course immediately overruled, and off we went to Mountain Shadow. The weather was great, with a cool breeze, which made a change from the last couple of weeks where everywhere has been really humid.

Colin Greig produced the best round of the day, beating his mate Paul Smith by a single point. A special mention goes to Rab McDonald, who won the B flight despite on 2 or 3 occasions losing the plot on the greens, and missing putts of less than 2 inches!

A Flight

1st Colin Greig (8) 39 points

2nd Paul Smith (3) 38 points

3rd Mike Lloyd (14) 37 points

B Flight

1st Rab McDonald (15) 32 points

2nd Gordon Melia (17) 31 points

3rd John Hughes (16) 28 points

Near Pins: Mike Lloyd, John Hughes and Alan Freeman (2).

Friday, March 23, Eastern Star G.C. – Stableford

A smaller number of golfers today for our visit to Eastern Star. Only 16 golfers turned up, producing an easily manageable number of 4 groups. We arrived at the course to find it busy and there was talk from the doom mongers of a 5½ hour round, but when we set off, we were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the round progressed. The first 3 holes were quite slow, but after the par 3 third, everything moved along nicely with no further hold ups.

The course was in good condition, except for the greens, which were so slow, that you had to belt the ball, even on steep downhill lies. The result was the most amount of 3 putts ever recorded, even an unconfirmed 5 putt!

Despite all this, Paul Smith came in with a great score of 73 gross – and 38 points (this was despite only parring 1 of the par 3s). The other event of the day was Lee Butler retiring after 14 holes, his reason being ‘heat stroke’, although running out of balls may have been closer to the mark.

1st Paul Smith (3) 38 points

2nd Rab McDonald (15) 35 points

3rd John Hughes (16) 35 points

4th Alan Freeman (3) 33 points

Near Pins: Only 3 greens were hit; Colin Greig, John Hughes and Peter Habgood.

John Hughes has picked up a few points this week, and is now only a couple of points behind arch rival Colin Greig in the race for the Golfer of the Month title, with 3 more games to go. Good luck next week guys!

Note: The Bunker Boys are a PSC affiliated golf society who now play out of the Bowling Green on Soi X-Zyte between Pattaya 3rd Road and Soi Buakaow. We play three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so if you enjoy a fun day out, and a friendly but competitive golf competition why not come and join us. We meet at the Bowling Green at 9 a.m. for breakfast and transportation, and new players with valid handicaps are always welcome. For more information call Dave on 087 1469978, email dave.evelyn18 @yahoo.co.uk.