The Course on the day was in its usual fine condition and they are now offering reduced green fees for the Low Season.
 
There was only a small group, so only one Flight, which was taken by Bill Plath with 37 points ahead of Takeshi Hakozaki second with 33 points and Dave Richardson third with 32 points.

Thursday the 26th April: Plutaluang (Stableford).   I never do well at Plutaluang and I have been playing it for many years. It is not that I actively dislike it, but I always know it is going to beat me up, and I really dislike the long leaf grass. Indeed, I played North and West last week and came off a battered and beaten Golfer. I have many discussions with golfers who really like the Course and play it all the time, and indeed with the present green fee of 350 Baht and the cheapest Restaurant around I can understand why.
 
One of the things at The Cafe Kronborg is 'The Admiral' books the Courses, and I run Thursday for him, just to give him a break. On a day like this I sometimes think of giving him a break, leg, arm etc, however what is, is, so off I went with the air of a Martyr.
 
Arriving at the Course it was a quick book in and then off we went on the S & E Layout. There is always a discussion which is the best 18 holes here, but for me this is the better.   The fairways seem better grassed and I can see on the Tee, the direction the ball should go. I also made a decision to try and relax here and as so many swear by the place, to give it a chance.
 
The Course was as expected, dry and the weather was hot and humid with only a slight breeze. On the fairways it was not too bad, but once off it was that hard gravelly type of lie that tends to mark the bottom of the club. The object was to keep it on the fairway as much as possible and hope for good lies off it. 
   
The reason most of this report is in the first person is that after years of being destroyed here, the new attitude kicked in. With a better attitude I think more players would play well at Courses they dislike, and on this day I shot in the Seventies here for the first time ever, last week it was in the Nineties. Golf really is played between the ears.
 
So the winner on the day was Derek Brook with 42 points ahead of Ebrahim with 38 points in second, Rick Bavington with 36 points in third and Graham Mitchell with 35 points in fourth.

So in future while this will never be amongst my favourite Courses, at least I will respect the views of those who really like to play it. Maybe!   T.T.F.N.

001    Derek Brook   002  
Bill Plath