CLUB NEWS
Captain Chong Charges to Dragon Cup lead at Poppy Hills
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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif., August 9, 2009 - For the fifth tournament of the inaugural season, the Dragons traveled to the Monterey Peninsula on August 9 to compete at Poppy Hills Golf Course, the home of the NCGA. On a sunny and warm afternoon, Club Captain Wes Chong turned in a 77 to win low gross in the A flight and take the lead in the Dragon Cup race.
Chris Chong (79) finished second low gross in the A Flight, while Bobby Chang, the leader of the Dragon Cup race coming into Poppy Hills, finished third low gross with an 85. In perhaps the most remarkable round of the tournament, Jonathan Wong three-putted five greens, but still made three birdies to shoot 82/net 67 to take 1st low net, while Lawrence Ma (85/net 74) and Alex Chong (94/net 75) came in second and third low net, respectively.
In B Flight action, Tim Lohse shot a 94 to win low gross, with Avachai "A.T." Tayjasanant (102) besting Fuzzy Pourahmadi's 102 by scorecard playoff for 2nd low gross. Martin Chang's 107/net 70 was good for 1st low net in the B flight, while Cathy Cheung (110/73 net) finished 2nd low net and George Hsu (102/82 net) third low net. Complete hole-by-hole results will be posted in the Members area of the club website this week.
Wes' efforts at Poppy Hills netted him 135 Dragon Cup points, vaulting him to first place at 615 points. Bobby is now in second place with 550 points, with Chris in third position (535). Tommy Chong (520), who did not play at Poppy Hills, remains within striking distance, while Tim made a 245-point move up the leaderboard and into fifth place (515). The updated Dragon Cup points list will be posted this week in the News section of the Club website.
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Poppy Hills' five par-3s permitted ample opportunities for closest-to-the-pin prizes, and Ray Lau took home two KPs in the B flight, with one KP each to A.T. and Angelo Formosa. The A Flight hit all five Par-3 greens, as they should, with Jonathan, Lawrence, Alex, Bobby and Larry Inouye splitting the KPs. The wealth was spread even more widely in the net skins game, with 13 skins going to just about all of the aforementioned gentlemen and one lady, Angie Wong, who made a birdie 4 on the Par-5 10th.
The Club also unveiled a limited edition Dragons GC baseball cap, which are being awarded to the low gross and low net winners of the Club tournaments this season, as well as the members of our NCGA Associate Club team. Tim, Martin, Wes and Jonathan are among the first to be honored with the distinctive black-and-red custom lid. The Board of Directors will be awarding the prior tournament winners with their caps separately.
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The Dragons gathered on the balcony of the Poppy Hills clubhouse to watch friends come up the 18th hole, with many pints of ice-cold brew in hand. After the awards ceremony, 9 Dragons remained at Porter's Grill for our traditional post-tournament supper and swapped stories (or lies) from yet another wonderful day of golf.
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The Dragon Cup points race will now continue in the coming weeks at NCGA and Chinese Golf Federation events, as the Dragons' final Club tournament will be in mid-October at Lake Merced Golf Club. The Dragons's NCGA Associate Club team (Wes, Bobby, George and Carol Lee) will return to Poppy Hills and Spyglass to compete in the 2009 NCGA Associate Club Championship later this month. A week later, a contingent of seven Dragons, led by Bobby and Ray Jeung (C-flight champion of the 2009 Tucson Invitational), will head to Portland to compete in the Labor Day Invitational of the Federation. Over the first weekend of October, Captain Wes will lead the Dragons to the SFCGC Carmel Invitational and Shaw Peng Challenge. While registration for the Labor Day Invitational has closed, registration for the Carmel Invitational is open for another three weeks. Lake Merced registration will also open within the week.
With double Dragon Cup points in play in the Federation Invitationals this fall, can Bobby recapture the Dragon Cup lead in Portland? Can Wes keep pace in Carmel? Or will it all come down to Lake Merced?
