Treasure Hill defines VFM

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IPGC Pattaya Golf Society at The Links Bar

The special deal of 1,300 baht green-fee, caddie-fee, and cart, on a well-presented course such as Treasure Hill, was more than enough to bring us back on Monday, May 11.  The Pattaya Golf Society’s four groups teed off from the white tees (6750 yards), on time, in good weather and on a reasonably empty course.  We found the course in good order, although many greens were still recovering from recent coring; as is the case on many courses around this time of year.

Treasure Hill offers little to no bail-out areas, thus any miss-directed shots will be penalised.  This is one reason the course plays the hardest of those on our regular rota, as today’s winning scores attest.

The par-3 6th returned Murray Edwards a healthy share of his green-fee, thanks to his birdie ‘2’ – the only one of the day.  Due to this ‘2’, we decided to pay out on just three places.  In third was recently returned regular visitor, Tim Dale from Australia, on 32 points.  One point better was fellow returnee and Australian, Gary Bolger, and completing the Aussie clean sweep was the day’s winner, Andrew Purdie, whose 4-pointer on the last gave him 35 points.  These may seem modest scores, but from the white tees, this course does play tough.

Back at the Links, Mr. Len drew Lyle Blaw’s name from the lucky beer draw hat and contesting for the booby bevy were the normally consistent duo of Mark Lang and Jon Batty, both of whom fell well short in their attempts to impersonate low-handicap golfers.  But today’s recipient, with a 10-19 back nine front nine split, was John Tallett.

Thomas signs out in style

On Wednesday, 13th May the Pattaya Golf Society travelled to an overcast Khao Kheow to play a stableford competition on the C and B nines, with the A course now subject to substantial fairway maintenance.

Course conditions have been better there as the course always suffers in the wet season through inconsistent maintenance because when it rains in the area it rains at Khao Kheow.  Greens were slow and the fairways were irregularly cut.  The brooding skies also played their part in roughing up the golfers as the rain soon arrived to put a miserable face on the day.

Scores were therefore low, with Sam McLellan posting 30 points for third place and new member Bob Strutt going one better to finish in second place with 31 points.  The winner of the single flight with 33 points was Craig Thomas, on the eve of his departure back to Australia after another pleasant golfing break in Pattaya.

Bob Strutt recorded a birdie ‘2’ on B8, as did Murray Edwards whilst Garry Hookey took a third share of the pot with a birdie on C3.

John Chelo was the lucky recipient of the non-winners beer draw whilst Mr. Len generously awarded the Booby Bevy to himself after his hero-to-zero performance which saw his previous round of 39 points disappear into a distant memory.

Aussie clean sweep at Crystal Bay

The Pattaya Golf Society ended its week with a visit to Crystal Bay to play a stableford competition on the C and A nines, which were very jaded with inconsistent fairways, un-raked bunkers and slow, painfully slow greens.  High humidity compounded to the golfers’ problems, adding at least an extra iron to distance, and consequently scores were indifferent on the traditionally low scoring track.

The single flight saw Gary Bolger take third place with 36 points, one behind the joint winners Wayne Morrison and Bob Strutt.  An all-Aussie podium, and not for the first time.

Alan Duckett and David Thomas shared the ‘2’s pot for their efforts on A5 and C7 respectively.  John Mason took the non-winners’ free beer in his stride and Doug Cairns accepted the Booby Bevy for his 12-20 point split figures.  A tough day indeed!