The KLOGS made our second trip to Thailand this year, this time the venue being the picturesque seaside resort town of Hua Hin which we visited from 14-19th November. We had an interesting drive down to Hua Hin as two of the seven-man KL contingent (Berni & your scribe) were left behind by the coach after a brief stop for provisions en-route so had to be recovered by a motor cycle rescue team ! However, all 7 did eventually arrive in Hua Hin, where we were joined by the local participants from Thailand and the Australian tourists. We were supported by fitness coach, Richard Moss, who flew in specially for the event.

Tour accommodation was at the Wannara Hotel which was fine for our needs and handy for the beach and local cultural attractions.

For the first three rounds, we had 13 players including 1 visitor (Ron) as Richard Greene could only play on Day 1 & Day 4 and with Gary Cooney joining on Day 2.

1st Day – Monthly KLOGS Medal – Springfield Royal Country Club

Day 1 dawned sunny with light cloud. The course was in good condition and the scenery very attractive.

Results

Making something of a habit of winning the first day was El Pres (Iain Wise) with a score of 91 for 39 points (cut 4), followed by Pietro Martucci with 96 for 38 points (cut 2) & Martin Walsh with 87 for 37 points(cut 1).

Full results below :

• NTP winner #4 : Rikki Ingham
• NTP winner #6 : Richrd Greene
• NTP winner #14 : None
• NTP winner #17 : David Hewitt
• Lowest gross : Berni Schobert (84)
• Last birdie : not won as those with birdies had other prizes

Colm O’ Donovan was also belatedly presented with his winners tankard from the Chiang Mai tour, the wrong tankard having been brought to that event !

COTD 

There were only 2 nominations for this initial award :

1. El Pres (Iain) – for leaving 2 people behind on the trip from Bangkok to Hua Hin, and for reading out the flights for Day 2 as Day 1
2. Allan – for leaving his smokes in a bar then begging for some before the bus

An easy decision this, and also continuing his first day trend from Chiang Mai, the clear winner was Iain Wise.

2nd Day – 1st Day of Competition – Black Mountain Golf Club

After a major storm during the night, the omens were not good for a dry day on the golf course, but despite thunder being audible throughout the day, the rain held off with only a brief 5 minute shower.

Following the group photo, we had a late start at ~ noon, tee-ing off from the 61 tees.

This course has beautiful views on almost every hole and was in good condition despite the overnight rain.

Results

The results were closely spaced on this first day of the competition, with the leader(s) on 40 and the tail end of the field with 31. The winner on countback was Martin Walsh with 83 for 40 points, followed by Gary Cooney (80/40) then Berni Schobert (83/39) & Ron McLung (89/39). These four would make up the final flight for Day 2.

Full results below

• NTP winner 1st Nine : Jimmy Leggett
• NTP winner 2nd Nine : Gary Cooney

Martin’s prize was a pair of shorts from the pro-shop, though he opted for a more sober colour than El Pres when he won in Chiang Mai (see group photo)

COTD

There were again only 2 nominations for this award :

1. Iain Wise – for various (undocumented) indiscretions
2. Martin Walsh – for turning up late at the pub the previous night with his shirt on inside out, claiming he had only been asleep

And the winner (again) was Iain Wise

3rd Day – 2nd Day of Competition – Black Mountain Golf Club

The second day of the competition was a sunnier and much hotter day at Black Mountain and many people (your scribe included) were beginning to flag, particularly since we also tee’d off from the tougher 65 tees.

Results

Given these earlier factors, scores were not as high and there was a much bigger spread in the field (37-17).  Most of the leading contenders maintained their form on the second day with Martin Walsh holding onto his lead and finishing 1st with 169/77 but with Pietro (dark horse) Martucci making a challenge and moving from 5th to 2nd place with 189/75. Gary Cooney was 3rd with 166/74 and had the lowest cumulative gross.

Full results below

• NTP winner 1st Nine : Bernie Schobert
• NTP winner 2nd Nine : Colm O‘ Donovan

The winners of the Horse & Jockey competition were Martin with Pietro for 1st and Colm with Ron for 10th. (A couple of players, including your scribe, mounted a challenge for 10th place instead, but ultimately dived too low !).

COTD

There were 4 nominations for this:

1. Berni – for helicoptering his golf club into the water, to follow his golf ball
2. Gary – for wearing a jockey shirt
3. Frank – for getting stuck in a morning traffic jam so arriving late for the coach, and for falsely accusing Gary of not bringing Baileys .
4. Rikki – for 5 points in 1st 9 holes

And the winner was Frank McKenzie !

Later that evening all players except Jimmy (who was asleep apparently) plus Richard Moss had a very pleasant dinner with wine & beer at Carlo’s restaurant near the hotel.

4th Day – Team Scramble – Seapine Golf Course

Another attractive and challenging golf course with a number of holes bordering the Gulf of Thailand. The weather was hot and sunny; fortunately the cooling sea breeze helped on some of the holes.

For this event we were joined by two further guests from Hua Hin (Richard & Trevor) to make up four 4-player teams.

Results

The team of Gary, Frank, Richard (G) & Dave E mastered the course, with 2 early birdies and no bogies; holing 3 long pressure putts later in the round to maintain the bogie-free round to give a score of -2.

Second was the team of Allan, Colm, Richard Greene & Trevor at +1, then Iain, Bernie, David & Jimmy in 3rd and Martin, Ron, Rikki & Pietro 4th .

COTD

There were 4 nominations for this:

1. Pietro (Luigi) – for playing patience on his phone during the speeches and for repeatedly calling Allan, Dave
2. Jimmy – for sleeping through the team dinner
3. Trevor – for being nicknamed TC
4. Frank – for being given deodorant by Jimmy then leaving Jimmy’s flight

And the winner was Pietro !

COTT

However finally, it was time for that most prestigious of awards, COTT

It has to be noted that the COTD nominations on this tour were fairly tame by recent standards (old age setting in ?)

So with 2 COTD wins during the week, Iain Wise was elected 2017 November COTT !

The various prize winners received sleeves of balls courtesy of Renaissance Hotels (thanks to Robert Frager) and Liberty Travel.

Fines & Honesty Jugs

There were not many jugs on this tour, but the Fines Master (Martin) was in fine form, penalising numerous people for various misdemeanors. As a result, we topped up the WHIP by ~ 7000 baht.

Thanks

Thanks to El Pres for his organization of the tour, to the overseas participants for making the long trip from Australia, to Richard Greene for his hospitality food in his bar on the second night and to our local guides, Frank, Gary & Richard who kept us well advised on the local scene (and the coach on the right road to the course !)

Commiserations

Unfortunately Ricardo Castro (Moneybags) was again unable to join the tour.

Sponsors

Our sponsors are a main reason that we can play at good golf courses and award members with trophies, attractive prizes as well as “KLOGS” signature golf balls. In order to show our appreciation we encourage members to support our sponsors.

 

And the last word on the tour goes to Martin on the phone to his (obviously Irish) taxi driver before heading off to Departures “Oi said Arrivals cos’ I’m arriving !”

Photos : courtesy of your Scribe & Bernie.