Scribe Report

Siem Reap, Cambodia

20-24th November 2013

The KLOGS 2013 November Away, perhaps also to be known as the KLOGS International Open was held this time in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a gateway town to the world famous heritage site of the Angkor temples. 11 Members and one guest from 8 Nations took it upon themselves to uphold the unparalleled traditions and fellowship of KLOGS and to spread goodwill among the locals.

While half of the tour group arrived in Siem Reap a day or two early from all corners of the globe, the remaining contingent arrived on the official 2 – hour flight from Kuala Lumpur on MAS. The flight was uneventful except for an announcement through the PA-system instigated by tour virgin Richard Rodwell congratulating Karl and Fritz on 20 years of “marriage”! This led to an automatic poll on same sex marriage among a large number of passengers who either clapped or showed stone faced disapproval. That bit of devious humour would pave the way for Richard Rodwell to receive several COTD nominations during the following days.

Simon Ng, from Liberty Travel had booked us into the Riviera Hotel. The accommodation was adequate, although some of the allocated rooms where rather small. Breakfast was the usual tourist fare. A cup of decent coffee cost you US $ 2 instead of the local plonk. The seasoned traveller chose to rather have breakfast in a nearby café.

The hotel location allowed for a US $ 1 tuk tuk ride to almost anywhere in central Siem Reap. Our scout Jimmy Legget found a laundry just round the corner from the hotel, which also provided excellent foot and back massages to the weary golfer. The place should be called “4-in-One” due to their entrepreneurial spirit and product diversification.

Visiting Siem Reap is a must due to the Angkor heritage sites and the Tonle Sap Lake. A much improved hotel, restaurant and pub scene at low prices adds to the experience. A choice of several good golf courses within 30 minutes of the hotel made this tour a great success. The details follow:

Day 1 – The Phokeetra Country Club, Angkor Wat

The Phokeetra Country Club, Angkor Wat, managed by Sofitel, proved to be a serious challenge. Clinging rough, lots of water hazards and extremely slow greens made decent scoring very difficult for most of us. Playing of the blue tees made some of the par 4’s very long not to mention a 217 yard par 3!

The results of Day 1, the November Monthly Medal, are as follows:

• 1st Karl Muir (cut 4)
• 2nd Richard Rodwell (cut 2)
• 3rd Rick Brown (cut 1)

 

• NTP front 9 Karl Muir (not paid)
• NTP back 9 Rikki Ingham
• Longest Drive Klaus Kretzschmar (not paid)
• Lowest Gross Brian Imrie (Karl and Richard R. other prizes)
• Last Birdie none declared

COTD Nominations:

• Frank Mackenzie : For putting the Kinks song “Lola” to the test
• Richard Rodwell : For arranging a special announcement on the MAS flight
• Karl Muir : For arranging priority luggage only to be last out of the arrival halland using colourful language on the course

Frank won the honour hands down.

Day 2 – Angkor Golf Resort

The 2-day “horse and rider” sweepstake as well as the battle to determine the November Away Champion were held on this golf course. The award-winning Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap is well known as one of Sir Nick Faldo’s classy designs. The 18 hole course is a lengthy 7279 yards, par 72 with excellent green paspallum grass. Considering the results of day 1, El Pres decreed that we would henceforth play off the white tees. In another innovation we chose to warm up at the 300 yards grass range and practice putting green before commencement of the day’s fun.

The fairways and greens were in superb condition. The numerous bunkers raised a question if Faldo also has a sand concession.

The results for Day 1 of the competition are:

• 1st Klaus Kretzschmar with a gross score 89 for 39 points
• 2nd Rikki Ingham with a gross score 92 for 35 points
• 3rd Karl Muir with a gross score of 85 for 34 points
• The full score sheet can be seen on the combined scores after day 2.
• NTP front 9 Rikki Ingham
• NTP back 9 Frank Mackenzie
• Longest Drive Richard Rodwell (most of us needed two shots to reach that distance)
• Lowest Gross Brian Imrie (after Karl 85 and Klaus 89 winning other prizes)

El Pres presented Klaus, as winner of the day, with an Angkor Golf Resort golf shirt on condition of doing a cat walk on the golfer’s terrace.

COTD Nominations:

• Richard Rodwell : offering to give Karl a “pleasurable” experience if he birdied a par 3
• Richard Rodwell : for giving Rikki putting lessons during the game
• Brian Jeffers : for baring his sizable rear to the caddies
• Jimmy Legget : for wearing a KLOGS shirt with the word “Scribe”.

Richard was elected COTD although Karl escaped the “pleasurable” experience missing the birdie putt (on purpose?)

Day 3 – Angkor Golf Resort – Second Day of the Competition

The decision to play the Angkor Golf Resort twice to determine the lucky winners of the sweepstake and the Tour Champion was welcomed by all. The course itself and the clubhouse facilities are indeed worth the trip to Siem Reap.

With the field trying to overtake day 1 winner Klaus or jockeying for 8th place the outcome was by no means predictable. Richard Rodwell did use some mysterious formula usually employed to predict the Dow Jones Index.

The results of the 3rd day and the total results of the two day completion are:

• 1st Day 3 Jimmy Legget Gross 96 38 Points
• 2nd Day 3 Rikki Ingham Gross 90 37 Points
• 3rd Day 3 Klaus Kretzschmar Gross 93 35 Points

As winner of Day 2 of the competition El Pres also presented Jimmy with an Angkor Golf Resort golf shirt. His cat walk on the golfers terrace was much more appealing due to a unique hip swing.

With a combined Stableford score of 74 Klaus Kretzschmar won the Tour Champion. It must be mentioned that Rikki Ingham posed a real challenge to Klaus. The 18th hole and the last putt decided the outcome. What a cliff-hanger!

The prize monies according to the drawn horse and rider pairings were:

Klaus (horse) and Brian Imrie (rider) each won US$ 150 of which both donated US$ 50 to the kitty.

The hotly contested 8th place was taken by Richard Rodwell (horse) who shared US$ 120 with Klaus (lucky rider). US$ 20 went back to the kitty.

COTD Nominations

• Frank Mackenzie : for telling a story from the last tour, relating to an episode with Des Hassan subject to the Scribe’s censorship
• Karl Muir : for initially presenting the 8th place prize to the wrong horse and rider
• Richard Rodwell : for massaging his score to match his calculated result for 8th place

No contest. The COTD award went to Richard Rodwell.

The full list of the 2-day event is shown below:

Day 4 – Siem Reap Booyoung Country Club

The traditional “money game” was held at the Siem Reap Booyoung Country Club, formerly known as Angkor Lake Resort Golf Club. Water is the predominant hazard on this layout with rather aggressive greenside sand trap placements and fairway bunkers rounding out the things to avoid list.

Thanks to copious amounts of Baileys we were oblivious to the fact that our bus speedometer constantly showed 120 to 140 km/h and still had 80km/h at standstill.

As in past tours El Pres decided that we would play a 2-man team game of better Stableford points. The teams were based on the best and least scoring players resulting from the 2-day sweepstake. The results are as follows:

The winning team was Richard Rodwell and Brian Imrie sharing the top prize money.

COTD Nominations:

• Richard Rodwell : True to form as Tour Virgin and cementing his claim on COTT was nominated for multiple transgressions during the previous evening. This included disseminating disinformation during a quiz night at Molly Malone. The nomination for talking constantly on the first 3 holes seemed minor in comparison. Richard was elected COTD and by default COTT due to 3 successful COTD nominations.

The tour dinner was held at Tell Restaurant in downtown Siem Reap, which offered superb fare and good wines.

 

Glasses were raised to thank El Pres for another successful tour. El Pres congratulated those KLOGS members who spared no expense in travelling to Siem Reap from the UK, Ireland, Thailand and Australia.

Further thanks went to Simon Ng, Liberty Travel for another smooth organisation of the trip including at the golf courses.

Last but not least we are grateful to our sponsors being Ye Old Club House, Wines Direct, City Golf and Robert Frager.