Stu Thompson’s Big Day Out

Pattavia Century Golf Course is not only a beautiful and testing course, but they have a very good regular price and, unlike many others, do not add extra baht to the cost for a public holiday.

It almost goes without saying that the Greenkeeper has kept up the fine presentation of the fairways and bunkers. To the relief of older hands, the greens have been tamed down from the way too speedy ones of other times. Having said that, they are still fast enough and, with some of the pin placements at times, can be tricky.

Twenty Four players today so just the one flight with five places.

It’s been a while between drinks for Stu Thompson, January in fact, since he wore the Green Jacket. Today he not only won it, but made absolutely sure of it with the great score of 43 points, a clear 6 points gap to second place. A big day out for Stu.

The second spot had to be decided by countback where Andrew Purdie prevailed over Dave Stockman, who did well in his first game with Links for some time. Both had excellent scores of 37 points.

Then came a further countback to split fourth and fifth places. Adam Barton won that encounter over Paul Smith, each with very good scores of 36 points. .

Near pins:  John Pierrel (4), Dave Hewson (7), Paul Chesney (13), Paul Smith (17)

 Winners at Pattavia

 1st Place – Stuart Thompson (20) – 43 pts

2^nd Place –  Andrew Purdie (10) – 37 pts c/back

3^rd Place –  Dave Stockman (6) – 37 pts

4^th Place –  Adam Barton (17) – 36 pts c/back

5^th Place –  Paul Smith (3) – 36 pts

Best Front Nine ( non winners) – Bill Copeland – 18 pts c/back

Best Back Nine ( non winners) –  Nils-Peter Kristensen – 21 pts

Beside the condition of the course, the weather also helped make a pleasant day. There was a smidgen of rain here and there, but not enough to worry and the cooler breezes were welcome.

You never know with the “silly hat”. The worst score on a nine was 11 points. Think you are safe? Not today, so Bill Stewart stepped up.

A couple of weeks ago Derek Phillips looked resplendent in the Green Jacket. Today it was ‘hero to zero’ for him, making the lowest score and wearing the “wig”