Pattaya Sports Club Links Golf Society
Tuesday, Feb. 9
Khao Kheow B+A
Stableford
On the eve of our visit to Khao Kheow, the weather forecast showed rain. Really? Yes, there was a little around the city on Tuesday morning, but quite a heavy rain at the golf course, which had KK management instructing carts to stay on path only.
As our twenty players moved to the first tee, B1, there was the now standard dispute over tee selection. The decision was to play white tees, where the first was placed very far forward, almost at the ladies’ tee.
Usually, if there are some tees shorter, there will be some that are longer over the nine holes. Here is where the crystal ball broke down!
It happened that all white tees on the B nine were very far forward, for whatever reason. The next nine, A course, were all where they should be, but made the course very short overall. We would have known that had the crystal ball not broken. Hindsight is wonderful.
It’s not often, these days, that Serge Straeten scores less than 100 gross, but this day everything clicked at the right time to turn in a score of 39 points and take a rare win. Players in his group reported a nice, even, steady game from Serge. We all hope to have a day like that had sometime.
Tony Brown has been playing well and is determined to get that handicap heading south. 38 points is the right direction, a good second place here.
Mike Ehlert, after having a frustrating run recently, has now found the form in his past couple of rounds that has him a #10 handicap, and with another good score of 37 points, took third place.
Another in good form of late is Mike Tottenham and winning a three way countback on 36 points got him fourth spot.
Near Pins: Peter Lacey, Dave McKey, Tony Browne, Martin Patch
Winners at Khao Kheow
1st Place – Serge Straeten (25) – 39 pts
2nd Place – Tony Browne (20) – 38 pts
3rd Place – Mike Ehlert (10) – 37 pts
4th Place – Mike Tottenham (21) – 36 pts c/back
Best Front Nine (non winners) – Nigel Harrison – 21 pts
Best Back Nine (non winners) – Michael Blumhagen – 20 pts
A large dark cloud hung over the course most of the time, threatening more rain, but everyone stayed dry, at least until they got to the showers, which are back on.
Then came the very slow trip along the frontage road which, again, has a lot of road works. However, still back to Links early enough. Remember when we had a real high season?
