Ninth IPGC Annual Championship

15th & 17th July

at Pattana Golf Club

New IPGC Champion Simon Spaulding receiving his trophies from Chairman Chris Knapp

The IPGC Championships were held this year over two days, Wednesday the 15th and Friday the 17th at the impressive Pattana 27 hole course where day one was played on the par 72 B & C courses and the pressure day 2 on the A & B nines which have a par of 73.
The total cost of 2,000 baht included the two rounds of golf with caddies and three buffets, day one being in the Oriente Restaurant at the course, the second on the Thursday at Lewiinski’s and the third prior to and after the presentations at The Haven on Friday evening which represented fantastic value for the members, especially when the lucky draw prizes, which everyone attending the prize giving received, were added in to the mix.
The entrants were divided into three divisions set at 0 to 11, 12 to 17 and 18 and above in the Gentlemen’s divisions and a Ladies section playing Stableford over the two days without a cut. Day one was played in a stroke play format with a cut being made at around 50% of the entries in each division, the top half having made the cut to play a second day of stroke play and the rest of the competition going into the Plate Competition played under a stableford scoring system.
The three courses had been especially laid out with tee positions and pin placements by the organising committee to provide a very tough test of golf over the two days as was to be expected for the Club Championship and the scores returned certainly showed that objective had been attained with the CSS on day moving to 73 and just staying at 73 for day two.
Even with a lower possible attendance, due to the current economic recession and the threat of various flu epidemics the numbers participating were only two down from the previous year underlining the steady growth of the IPGC over the last year and the quality of player also advance with just under 25 % being single handicappers.

Day 1 B & C Courses par 72

Day one was played over the B and C courses, on which the management and green staff had worked wonders, considering the recent heavy rainfall in the area and although the greens were slow they were true and even without too much sanding. and playing as usual all of the stated 6564 yards with a serious degree of difficulty and  with the pins in championship positions the course was  playing about as hard as anyone could remember, as the scores indicated from the start on both nines. In the final analysis the CSS for the day increased to 73 which was a fair indication of the difficulty in the prevailing wind.
The day started with the players being greeted in Pattana’ s impressive entrance lobby and provided with a special edition card of the course fully detailed with names and handicaps, and a plan of the pin placements for the day and a copy of the IPGC local rules, and aided with the television display of the tee times everyone knew exactly what when and where which meant that the starters had a fairly simple task to get everybody away on time with the last groups leaving the tees slightly earlier than planned. The round then proceeded at a good pace as the whole field was divided into three balls for speed and convenience of play.
The Ladies Division was tied up with Ann Silawong and Yui Bietry on 35 points.
The Third Division was headed by the new Club Chairman, Chris Knapp off an 18 handicap, one of only two players able to match par on the day with none bettering it. He was followed by Charlie Sheppard with a 73 also off of an 18 handicap and Evan Millar also with a 73 off of his 21 handicap. The cut in the third division came at 79 net.
In the Second Division, things were just as close with Ted Gardener and Trevor Schirmer leading at 73 and Robin Peach and Yasuo Suzuki one behind and the cut also being made at 79.
The first division featured the only other player to match par, Clinton Hazlett, at 72 with Daniel Willits, Phil Mitchell and Dave Stockman all on 74 the cut came at 77 in the division with Daniel Willits unable to compete on the final day having been unable to change his flight schedule back to Oz.

Day 2 A & B courses par 73

Once again the contestants were greeted in the lobby and furnished with a new card for the days courses together with the days pin placements.
Starting from two tees again with the Plate Competition beginning on the B course and the Championship divisions from the first tee on A, the stage was set for another tense and exciting final day with 22 trophies to play for.

As usual the Ladies led off the day and although there were only two competing they proved that golf can be competitive whilst also being a sport to be enjoyed even under pressure. Yui Bietry continued with her recent good form to claim the Ladies Championship with a two under handicap round of 38 points to win by six from Ann Silawong.
The Third Division Chris Knapp continued serenely, although not quite so convincingly as day one, with a net 77 that was good enough to see him home by three strokes from second placed man Kevin Hamilton, whose second day round of 73 was enough to win the count back with Bryan Rought on the same total of 152 but a worse 78 on the last day. Chris’s two day total was four better than the previous years winning total.
The Second Division top spot was passed to Fred Land, as Ted Gardener went forward to the Net Champion position, with a solid even par round on day two he finished with a 147 total to take the division by one shot from second place man Yasuo Suzuki, who managed to keep it all together this time after last year blowing the division with a ten over round when leading at the start of the day. Third spot was claimed by Robin Peach as he took the count back on the final round by a score of 76 when Trevor Schirmer with the same 150 total could just scrape in with a 77 to miss out on the prizes by the slimmest of margins having beaten last years third place man by five shots. 
The top of the first division looked like it would be a real battle, with the main contenders vying for both the division prize and the prestigious IPGC Gross Champion.
In the event it was Rick Holmes playing in the second from last group who came through to surprise the front runners in the last group with an outstanding net level par round of 73 which left him with the winning total of 148 that equaled the winning score from the previous years event.
The final group did provide two placings with Dave Stockman taking second place with a 150 total and Clinton Hazlett third another shot back.
Having missed the cut with a very surprising eight over on day one, Simon Spaulding got it all together on the final day with a gross 77 that was just enough to see off the challenge of Steve Mascari, who could only manage a pair of 79s, as he finished with 157 gross and took the coveted 2009 IPGC Club Championship trophy.

The Plate Competitions

Division 3 had Laurence Slattery at the front with a modest 34 points as the difficulty and length of the 6769 yards course began to tell especially against the higher handicappers. Derek Holt slipped into second place with a better count back of 18 to Harry Vincenzi‘s 17 with both having the same score of 32 points.
Division 2 saw Pierre Bietry add to the family’s trophy haul for the day, as he became the only player in the Plate divisions to equal par with a very steady round. Grant Cadell at last kept it on the short stuff for most of the round as he garnered 35 points and second place ahead of Mikael Andersson by one in third spot. Mikael had to see off the efforts of Eddie Beilby with a better count back of 17 to Eddie’s 16.
Division 1 gave a fillip to Rodney Hayes as he took top spot with 34 points with his unspectacular but effective game off the tee that rarely sees him miss a fairway.

Before the presentation of the prizes by Len Jones the Club Promotion and Advertising specialist, Chris Knapp, the Club Chairman, thanked Len Jones, Glyn Evans, Steve Mascari, Bob Newell and Russell Exley together with their respective venues, for assisting in the promotion and organisation of another very successful Club Championship and also thanked the recently retired Chairman, Bob Newell for his efforts on behalf of the Club in the past. There was also an additional thank you to Stephen Beard and Russell Exley who had spent most of the week dealing with many of the details setting up the course, organising the new IPGC Club banners and custom made tee markers and in organising Start times, registration, starters and scoring amongst other things together with Glyn Evans who had assisted very helpfully on the golf days at the course.
He also thanked the management of Pattana and especially the catering staff for the sumptuous buffet on Wednesday, and who had closed the tees on both nines on both days, until all the players had started and were through the front nine and off the tenth, together with the green keepers for doing such an excellent job of preparing the courses is less than ideal conditions and the starters and caddy masters at each of the courses who did a first class job in controlling the tees and generally marshalling what must be said was a very disciplined and amenable field, and gave a special commendation to all the members that had supported and contested over the two days and to Pattaya Sports Supply for once again supplying all of the trophies. He also thanked Lewiinski’s for providing the buffet on the in-between day and also The Haven and Khun Lumyai for once again providing a first class buffet that went on late into the night well after the prize giving was finished that put a final gloss on what had been once again a very memorable and well organised two days of top drawer golf played in the very best spirit of the game.                          

Following the prize giving  everyone attending was presented with a lucky draw prize of either a pair of custom made golf shoes, an IPGC branded shoe/kit bag, or a dozen quality golf balls by Titleist, Callaway, Nike or Taylormade, which rounded off the day very nicely.