The 2008 Festival of Golf was highest standard played for many years, with all levels of golfer playing off a full handicap allowance

KHAO KHEOW (Day 1)
The Ladies figured highly in the early rounds with Zoe Ellis carding a creditable 35 points on the first day at Khao Kheow to take an early lead from Vince Edmonds (Last year’s defending champion), Jan Green and Maurice Green all having 32 points

MOUNTAIN SHADOW (Day 2)
The best scores on the second day played at Mountain Shadow, came from Jan Green and Bruce Scott, both with 35 points. However Jan took the spoils as she narrowly beat Bruce on count back pushing her into a 7 point lead over the rest of the field

EASTERN STAR (Day 3)
Day three was played at Eastern Star and was easily the hottest of the competition. Despite the heat several players took the decision to walk and again a lady showed the way. This time it was 23 handicap Ingrid Gledhill with a fine 38 point total which was followed by Zoe Ellis with 36 points, husband Brian and Luke Steed were close behind on 35 points

LAEM CHABANG (Day 4)
The competition then moved to the ever popular Laem Chabang course which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Linda Ashworth playing off a handicap of 13 was the outstanding player of the day with a magnificent 40 points. Linda was followed by 16 handicap Catherine Connon on 37 points and 9 handicap Luke Steed 35 points

BURAPHA A & B COURSE (Day 5)
So with four rounds played so far all the individual winners were Ladies as we transferred to Burapha A & B course. At last we had a male winner with defending champion Vince Edmonds scoring a fine 37 points. Vince was followed by John Harvey on 36 points which included a great “Hole in One” on the par 3 sixth hole. Regretfully for John the sponsors for the hole were Pepsi Cola and Johns reward was several boxes of the soft drink. This did nothing to help his bar tab at all

BURAPHA C & D COURSE (Final Day)
So we entered the Final Day at Burapha C & D course with the two lowest card throwaway system now coming into play. Vince Edmonds started the round with a 2 point lead from Luke Steed, however 8 players were still in with a chance of taking the title. None of which were more focused than Irelands 12 handicap Peter Connon who forced his way up the leaderboard with a fantastic 40 points, the best individual Men’s score of the week. So would this be enough as Peter had amassed a 137 total. This equalled Essex’s Vince Edmonds 4 card score and would take the title on the best final card ruling, if Vince didn’t beat his low score of 32 points. It was neither as Vince could only equal his 32 points. The ever consistent Scot Luke Steed scored a fine 39 points giving him a 144 points level par total, which pushed Peter and Vince into second and third places respectively. Zoe Ellis (132 points) narrowly beating Jan Green and Linda Ashworth (131 points) for the best ladies total. A mention has to be made of 6 handicap Bruce Scott who missed the third round with a stomach bug and 19 handicap John Skewes who missing rounds 2 & 3 on medical grounds, but still came back to play the final 2 rounds. Bruce despite this climbed to a creditable 4th place total of 132 points

Well done to everyone who took part and particularly Luke Steed on a magnificent victory. Also to Vince Edmunds who certainly gave a great defence of his title. We hope you will all return next year to play “The Festival of Golf” or maybe one of Coco Golf’s other exciting tournaments.