International Challenge Doi Inthanon 17 March

Unusual for Thailand but look at the photos, cold and wet, who would believe it. There were plenty of phone calls and discussion regarding a reschedule but in the end it was decided to go ahead. It did not look good weather wise right up to the start and even the caddies had decided there would be no golf today. But Chiangmai Golfers are made of much sterner stuff and all 48 turned up today with only one, who shall remain nameless, deciding not to play - much to the chagrin of his team mates having to play one man down. Those who made the effort were rewarded with a virtually rain free round and, as is usually the case in this type of tournament, a close scoring event. The course held up extremely well considering the heavy rain over the past three days, wet yes, but extremely playable and with many who had not played the course previously already planning to return and play it under better conditions.

The winners this year were the VIKINGS or Team Scandinavia, Mr.B. Lucassen, Christian Friis, Steve Bannister & Inge Billman coming in with a net 61. One shot behind in second place was Team England with Nigel Jones, Mark Morris, David Hub and coming out of retirement especially for this event Mike Breeze coming in with a net 62. Third Place was taken by Australia 1 with a net 63. It should be noted at this stage that another team Lanna Ladies also scored 63 but had to be disqualified for an incorrect score card after much discussion by the committee resorting to the rules book for varification. Then would you believe 5 teams came in with a score of 64, at one stage nearly causing Les our treasurer to have a heart attack in deciding how he would divide up the prize money if they were first or second. So nine teams within four shots. Of course we all had to listen to stories of how birdies were hard to come by, chips for birdy that rimmed out, chip in pars, long putts that went in and those that rimmed out but hey what else would we have to do while waiting for the Celts scorecard to come back from Bangkok.

Nearest the pins were: Hole 6 Christian Friis, Hole 4 Gary Burke, Hole 12 Steve Jepson and Hole 16 Nigel Jones all gratefully accepting some bottles of fine wine selected by Les who accidently dropped two at home and had to go out and buy more (I think the club should reimburse him).

Thank you to all involved in the organising of this event as there is no doubt that it is one of the most popular events on our golfing calander and most of all thank you to all who played the game as this is what Social Golf is all about.

Final Starting Orders - Wed 16

To those members who rang concerned about the forecast for inclement weather it has been decided to go ahead with the tournament tomorrow regardless of the weather and this has been confirmed with the golf course. The decision was based on the known sporadic weather between suburbs/areas in CM, the reliability of weather forecasting and the availability (for another date) and contactability of such a large number of members.

The team handicaps are posted in red alongside the teams also the teams starting hole for the shotgun start (Shotgun start has been reconfirmed with the Golf Club). The person with the asterisk next to their name is responsible for collecting the team score card & rules from Garry W and getting the team organised for a team photo prior to going to starting hole in time for the 0900 tee off.

Gary Burke will be running a Para-mutual (place your bets on winning team) so check with him also before the start if you think you know who will win the event.

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Nominations will be accepted at venues from 7th Feb, from Current Members only, for this years Challenge Cup which will be held at Doi Inthanon on thursday 17th March 2011 at a pre arranged rate of 920baht each including caddy.



It will be an 0900 tee-off but all nominated teams are to be at the course, registered and green fees paid by 0845.


A Nomination Fee of 200baht is to be paid by each member and nominations will close on 15th March 2011. Once your fee is paid your name will appear on the website and once your nominated team is fully paid up it will be listed on the website.

Teams will consist of 4 golfers from the same country of origin. If there are insufficient numbers from any individual country to make up a team then subject to committee approval a team will be made up from the nomination list e.g., if insufficient from Norway, Sweden or Denmark then they will be combined to form a Scandinavian Team.



All teams will have a handicap which will be deducted from their gross team score at the end of the game to give a net result. The handicap will be the ambrose system (total team handicap divided by 8).
Should the final result end up a draw then a count back will be done from the 18th hole and the first team to win a hole will be declared the winner and the other the first runner-up.

Winning Country and names will be engraved on the Perpetual Trophy. There will be cash prizes which will be determined by the number of nominations received and there will also be nearest the pin prizes.
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Rules

Each player must count three of his/her drives on the 14 par 4 or 5 holes and indicate name on the score card. As there are four persons who must count three drives each (12 drives) in a team that will leave two holes/drives to be the captain's choice.


The person whose drive is counted must mark his ball with a tee and the other three players must place their ball near the tee to take their teams second shot. The person whose drive was counted cannot be used for the second shot, it has to be one of the three other players. There is no restriction on third or fourth shots, any team members shot can be counted..


The four par threes have no restrictions. Any team members shot can be counted.


Once you are on the green and the best ball is chosen, it is to be marked and all four players will putt from that position. Each player will putt in turn and once the ball is in the hole that score will be counted. In other words if you putt a ball up to the edge of the hole for one and then tap it in without giving your team mates the chance to one putt then the score stands as two putts. So even if it is on the rim, mark it and give you team mates a chance at a one putt.