Frustrating Day At Eastern Star

             Course Heavily Over Booked

Is it a money grabbing exercise or mismanagement, or both? Eastern Star was obviously way overbooked on this Friday and whoever allowed it or authourised it had no thought for player/customer comfort.

The first sign was, when our third bus pulled up at 9.50 am, golf bags were standing up by the wall with not a caddie in sight. In the mustering area a very pro-active lady marshal informed us that, as caddies finished on the eighteenth, she would send them to each of our groups in turn.

We were sent to the tenth tee and with that same lady marshal and Maurice ferrying players and caddies to the tee, we got everyone away.

As I turned toward the clubhouse there were crowds of people overflowing inside and outside obviously waiting to play. As many groups of Korean golfers went to the tees our groups were coming through and were dovetailed in between the Koreans.

I watched as one Korean lady golfer stood on the tenth tee having practice swings while waiting for the fairway to clear, only to be moved from the tee three times to allow our groups crossing over. Good for us, but can only imagine how frustrating for the lady. She and her group did get started eventually when one of our groups was a bit slow and left a gap.

This course is never known to allow big scores and today from our 51 players, only four played to handicap or better.

The ‘C’ flight produced two of the top scores, 40 points, and had to go to a countback to decide the winner of the Green Jacket. Unfortunately, only one can win and it was Martin Patch, in his first game for a long time, holding out against a great game from Mr. Consistent, Stuart Kidd.

Thorsten Jodehl has not replicated his 49 points from a couple weeks ago but did score 33 points to take third place.

“B’ flight also went to countback with two scores of 37 points where Maurice Roberts just nudged Anne Stokes from top spot. Billy Buchanan is fairly steady and made 34 points for third place.

On the day, “A’ flight was somewhat of a lack luster affair where the winning score was just 34 points, which gave Bob Stokes the win in that flight, but a win is a win, Bob.

Another countback, this time for second and third, gave newcomer to Links, Vic Hansen, a narrow win over that top golfer, Paul Smith, both scoring 32 points.

Plenty of novelty prizes out there and all were claimed.

Near Pins ‘A’ flight: Michael Lohse, Billy Buchanan, Mike Ehlert, Vic Hansen

Near Pins ‘B’ flight: Stuart Kidd (x2), Berndt Motzenbacher, John Masters

Long Putt: Jamie Booterbaugh

 ‘A’ Flight ( 0-14)

1^st  Place – Bob Stokes (12) – 34pts

2^nd Place – Vic Hansen (10) – 32 pts c/back

3^rd Place – Paul Smith (3) – 32 pts

 “B” Flight (15-16)

1^st  Place –  Maurice Roberts (15) – 37 pts c/back

2^nd Place – Anne Stokes (15) – 37 pts

3^rd Place – Billy Buchanan (15) – 34 pts

‘C’ Flight ( 17+)

 1^st  Place – Martin Patch (17) – 40 pts c/back

2^nd Place – Stuart Kidd (17) – 40 pts

3^rd Place – Thorsten Jodehl (17) – 33 pts

Best Front Nine “C” ( non winners)….Ahmed Tavir….17 pts

Best Back Nine “A” (non winners)…..David DeCaminada ….18 pts

Gordon Laviolette completed the hat trick of ‘wigs’ by once again having the low score.

Will Brown was called to the tee and wandered over minus clubs, caddie or cart. The lady marshal ferried him back to get his gear. That should have got the ‘silly hat’, but Phil decided that there was too much going on, so instead, Pierre Cere got it for his 7 points on the front nine.

We understand that the ‘high season’ may not last long and course management want to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ We wonder if frustrating a couple of hundred people a day outweighs the cash.

One last word: There was one lady marshal who worked tirelessly in helping get our groups set with caddies while, it seemed, many of her colleagues stood around without much interest or seemed overawed by the numbers, or standing around chatting.

This lady worked under much duress, which she should not have been put under. I’m sorry I didn’t get your name as we were so busy, but a big Thank You for your work with us.