Bangpra ( Stableford) Bangpra and its Monkeys were the Hosts to a Stableford Competition in one Flight. The Clubhouse is undergoing a complete gutting and rebuilding, and is slated to re open in mid July. The presents facilities are in the old Hotel, and are adequate for a small group, as most are at present.
The Course on the day was in good condition, with greens recently cored and sanded, but recovering nicely. The renovations on the Course seem to be on a target date of October for completion, with maybe the new tenth green slipping to the end of the year.
On the day the Ever Steady Ebrahim took first on a countback from Graham Buckingham in second, both with 35 points. Henk De Bock was third on a countback from Bill Plath, both with 31 points.
Don't forget that The Ray Rogers 4 Persons Texas Scramble at Burapha is on the 8th May. First Tee Off at 0900hrs, and all the festivities back at Ray's House By The Reservoir, about 1630 hrs.
013 Ebrahim
Thursday The 1st May: Plutaluang South & East ( Stableford) Some days start out bad and get worse, others start out good and get better. I will let you guess what sort of day this was.
The day started as normal with most of the golfers meeting at The Cafe Kronborg, then deciding to leave at the normal time, despite the Tee Off being at 1016 hrs. Sometime when we get there early we can start a bit early. So a nice bimble down there, as there was no rush, was quite pleasant, then we arrived and realised what a dreadful mistake we had made.
It was 1st May and every 'Tom, Dick and Harry' had decided to make their way to Plutaluang. The reception area was full of bags and not a Caddy in sight. Of course we dropped the bags off and they put them to one side and we left a couple of players there to push them through.
At the start it was chaos, golfers not knowing what was going on and walking around aimlessly. At the start some groups went off, usually 5/6 balls so we knew it was going to be a slow day. Of our group, only 4 had caddies, a little before our tee off time, so we sent them to the start and waited for what was to happen.
What happened was some smart young people dressed as young military men are, turned up in their boots and were 'Assigned' as caddies. Not a clue, in fact so little did they know about the job of caddy they did not turn out too bad. They pulled a trolley and that was that and as they could not offer advice they did not give any wrong.
This meant that the golfers had to think for themselves. Hard work for some. It was quite strange on the greens with four golfers, and four caddies sat at the side in a group watching.
Of course it was slow, and when I say slow I mean really slow. Not much change was left from 6 hours, and of course our" Caddies' in their uniforms suffered a bit in the heat, so much so we had to keep letting them sit in the shade. This was a really bizarre day.
We will pass over most of it, surprise to say we had a couple of good scores, and both golfers had a 'Special Caddy'. This may say something about the need to think for yourself out there.
The winner with 37 points was Tom Cotton and he won on countback from Henry O'Brien in second. In third was Ebrahim with 33 points and we had a countback for fourth on 32 points won by Henk De Bock with J.C. Lhoste just losing out.
Now we could go home but the nightmare was not over. As we got close to Pattaya the traffic was backed up for miles. And here endeth the day. Good or Bad?. T.T.F.N.