Bunker Boys Golf Society
Monday, Sept. 18, Than City G.C. – Stableford
1st Neil Carter (12) 37pts
2nd Alan Sullivan (15) 32pts
3rd Les Cobban (7) 29pts
Near Pins: Les Hall, Alan Sullivan, Jimmy Carr
Our golf tour of Bangkok kicked off on a bright note at the beautiful Thana City course just thirty minutes drive from downtown Bangkok. This, the only Greg Norman designed course in Thailand, is a par-72 layout of 7000 yards and is set in beautifully landscaped surrounds. As always there were some things whinge about and the planes constantly taking off from nearby Suvarnabhumi were a bit of a distraction.
The star of today’s round was Neil Carter but Jimmy Carr was afflicted by a serious bout of a peculiar South African disease, (i. e.) getting lost and a full four hours later Jimmy was still trying to complete a thirty minute trip.
Tuesday, Sept. 19, Lam Luk Ka – Stableford
1st Mike Brett (15) 31pts
2nd Neil Carter (12) 31pts
3rd Alan Sullivan (15) 29pts
Near Pins: Les Hall, Les Cobban
The second day of our Bangkok golfing adventure was at the beautiful Lam Luk Ka Country Club and we were allocated the A/B East (Championship) course, which is not for the faint-hearted as there is water on every hole.
Even our longest hitters struggled to hit the par fours in regulation today and on reflection we may have had much more success playing off the white tees rather than the yellows, which in many cases were placed next to the blues.
It’s fair to say that nobody covered themselves in glory today; scoring was on the very low side with only two players breaking thirty points. At the end of the round, Neil Carter and Michael Brett were locked together on 31 points and had to be separated by count back, the latter taking the spoils with the better closing holes.
Wednesday, Sept. 20, Panya Indra – Stableford
1st Les Cobban (7) 32pts
2nd Mike Brett (15) 29pts
3rd Jimmy Carr (16) 28pts
Panya Indra, host venue for the recent Thailand Ladies Masters was next on the list for the Bunker Boys. The course looked at first glance to be a fairly easy open layout, but how wrong can first impressions be. Only two holes were without a water hazard, bunkers were very strategically placed and numerous and even off the white tees the course was long with several par fours in excess of four-hundred yards.
Scoring was difficult with no one managing to return a decent score. Les Cobban, after a shocker on the previous day, returned to form and looked like posting a decent score only to falter on the inward half, but he still came in first with 32 points.
Thursday, Sept. 21, Subhapruek G.C. – Stableford
1st Les Cobban (7) 35pts
2nd Neil Carter (12) 34pts
3rd Alan Sullivan (15) 33pts
Near Pins: Neil Carter (2), Geoff Parker (2)
The Muang Kaew course looked fantastic on the drive in but the sucker punch came when those with girlfriends were informed that they would have to pay 1550 baht each for their partners to accompany them onto the course with a caddie and cart. This was presented as a take it or leave it offer, which was a bridge too far for us so we did leave it.
After a quick ring around a new game was organised at the Subhapruek which was a very acceptable replacement and much closer to Pattaya for the trip home. Although not an easy course it was still much easier than the previous three days and this was reflected in the scoring with Les Cobban continuing his good form from the previous day and taking the honours.
