Darren’s “Flash of Brilliance”

Masa Sugaya was in our group and his card showed 41 points so we reckoned he had the Green Jacket sewn up.

But then Darren Beaver’s excitement as he handed over his card suggested we may have reckoned too soon. Indeed, he had yet another great score, this time it was 42 points to just edge out Masa for the Jacket, and continue his ambition to get his handicap much lower.   Stop Press! Updated handicaps are now out and he has gone lower.

Twenty one players descended on Pattaya Country Club with dark clouds hovering, but providing some nice breezes for a lot of the time enabling a comfortable round of golf.

As with most courses right now, PCC is going through the maintenance phase, but there are many sanded and GUR areas on the fairways and some wet ones as well, so Maurice called lift, clean and place on the fairways.

The greens are also being worked on but for the most part ran quite well, even though there were sad stories of lip-outs.

Our lead groups made good time even though they ran up behind another Society. They were two three-balls and moved along until we all caught up to a five-ball. Still, it was late in the round by then, so no problem.

As we have seen, Darren Beavers took first place over Masa Sugaya. In third place was Peter Park with another solid round scoring 36 points and once again the best gross, then Craig Brodey in his final game this trip withstood a countback to take fourth with 35 points.

Near Pins: Peter Park (5), Takeshi Hakozaki (7), Russell Spratt (12), Peter Park (16)

Winners Pattaya Country Club

1^st  Place – Darren Beavers (17) -42 pts

2^nd Place – Masa Sugaya (20) – 41 pts

3^rd Place – Peter Park (4) – 36 pts

4^th Place –  Craig Brodey (14) – 35 pts c/back

Best Front Nine ( non winners) –  Petur Petursson –  19 pts

Best Back Nine (non winners) –    Maurice Roberts – 17 pts c/back

At the presentations, Phil told many stories about possible contenders for the “silly hat”. However, none of the subjects was present so it reverted back to the original worst nine hole score and, after wearing the Green Jacket a week ago, John Harrison was at the other end.

John Anderson has narrowly avoided the “wig” on numerous occasions but his lowly score today left no place to hide.

Most like the layout of this course, but it still a bit rough around the edges and still, in the opinion of this writer, priced too high for what you get.

A nice day out topped off by the fun atmosphere at Links Bar. Oh!, although dark and threatening all day, it did not rain on us.