by Peter Blackburn

Blacky & Joseph Bensoussan

Plutaluang, North & South – Stableford
Well, the low season is now well & truly upon us as there were only fifteen names on the starting sheet which is the lowest number for many a month. There are many more people going than coming at the moment and today will see the last of Richard & Carole Kubicki in Pattaya until later in the year. Brian Gabe is also leaving us for a few months as he returns to Detroit Michigan later this week. The Admiral is going back to the USA for 3 weeks on his S.A.T. (Songkran Avoidance Trip) and also Walter Baechli is returning to his native Switzerland for a month. In light of the absence of regular members and the obvious traffic problems that will occur there will be no golf played out of Café Kronborg from April 9th to April 21st inclusive. Looking at the scores of the last two games it will be a good chance for all to recharge their batteries as I feel quite a few of us are “golfed out”. We arrived at Plutaluang after a 40 minute drive and it wasn’t long before we were able to assemble at the first tee on North course and our first group hit off at 0945, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. The weather was hot with little breeze so fluid intake was the order of the day. The course was as usual in good shape with the greens a little slower that other courses and the first couple of greens had been sanded, but all in all conditions were fine for golf although it was not reflected in the overall scoring with no-one playing to their handicap. Taking it easy due to the heat we had several stops for drinks and completed our round in four hours and forty-five minutes.
With the small field we had just the one flight and thanks to the generosity of Walter Baechli we had rewards for nearest the pins on the four par threes.
Doug Maiko continued his good form and won the day by four points from Richard Kubicki. A three way count back saw Brian Gabe finish third with Bjarne Kjaer fourth and yours truly fifth. Carole Kubicki didn’t finish her trip empty handed as she easily won the “Compass Hat” award.
Results for Plutaluang:
1st – Doug Maiko (16) – 35 points
2nd – Richard Kubicki (11) – 31 points
3rd – Brian Gabe (16) – 30 points
4th – Bjarne Kjaer (19) – 30 points
5th – Peter Blackburn (14) – 30 points
NTP’s
N3 – Richard Kubicki
N6 – Doug Maiko
S4 – Peter Blackburn
S7 – Peter Blackburn

Herb Ishinaga on the left with Larry Emerson on the right

Greenwood, C & B – Stableford.
We had a field of 19 on the starting sheet but 2 people did not show and did not notify anyone of there intention of not playing. I’m sure other golf venues have this problem from time to time but it is especially disrupting for us as we have to order the required number of buses the night before. I hope the “offending” people read this and are at least touched with an appropriate amount of guilt and make the effort to be more considerate in future. We were pleased to welcome Petteri Kihlberg & Mikko Hiltunon from Finland who were playing with us for the first time. Leaving Café Kronborg a little late after waiting for the “no shows” we arrived at Greenwood around 0915 which gave us plenty of time before our scheduled 1000 tee off time. As usual the Starters were very cooperative and we were able to tee off a little earlier at 0950, starting on C course. It was very hot as expected but the course was in magnificent shape as ever with the greens being among the best in the region. Water intake was essential of course and after a couple of long drink breaks we completed our round in the excellent time of four hours and twenty minutes.
We had one flight due to the low numbers and once again we had a generous sponsor, Stu Rifkin for prizes on the four par threes.
There were some very good scores on this day and you needed to score to your handicap or better to finish on the podium. It was a count back for first & second place with Mike Allidi extremely unlucky not to win after going round the course in par off his 3 handicap. Great golf from Mike but the winner was his fellow countryman Joseph Bensoussan. Les Hall finiAshed in third place with newcomer Mikko Hiltunon finishing fourth. Alas I have to report that the coveted “Compass Hat” was presented by Stu Rifkin to yours truly. After playing mediocre golf of late it was only a matter of time.
Results for Greenwood:
1st – Joseph Bensoussan (19) – 39 points
2nd – Mike Allidi (3) – 39 points
3rd – Les Hall (18) – 38 points
4th – Mikko Hiltunon (26) – 36 points
NTP’s
C3 – Les Hall
C6 – Mikko Hiltunon
B2 – Stu Rifkin
B5 – Niels Hansen
Another year has passed and we have just four weeks until the Ray Rogers Memorial Birthday Four Person Scramble scheduled for Thursday, 6th May at Plutaluang South & North layouts with a green fee of just 400 baht. Presentation of prizes and food to be back at Ray’s house around the pool afterwards. The sign up sheet goes up on the board at Café Kronborg on 20th April with the entry fee of 500 baht per person to be placed in the box at sign up.