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Summit Windmill Golf Club, Bangkok Thailand

Designed by Nick Faldo and opened in 1993, Summit Windmill Golf Club is one of the tougher tests of golf in Thailand with a back tee rating of 74.2, slope of 146 and measuring 6964 yards. The middle tees at a more modest 6211 yards have a rating of 70.2 but with a challenging slope of 132. Thus both mid handicappers and single digit players can challenge themselves by playing the appropriate tees.

A unique concept in Faldo’s design is that most of the tee boxes for the back tees are set up on little elevated islands. This course incorporates a substantial amount of mounding, and moguls, another facet not found in the local area courses. A couple of holes have split fairways and golfers may find that a perfectly straight tee shot is in fact in the rough with a side hill lie. Maybe this is a little frustrating, but this is what makes this course interesting and challenging.

Does Your Driver Conform?

Here I am not speaking about the merits of your chauffeur or taxi driver, but rather the golf club you use to tee off on 14 of the 18 holes when playing golf in Thailand.

Recently in the Caltex Masters, Chinese player Liang Wen-chong was disqualified for using a non-conforming driver. Liang was using a driver (Mizuno 300 SII) that contravened the Coefficient of Restitution (COR) rules. Liang claimed to be unaware of the contravention.

The issue of COR was amicably settled in last year when after much discussion, golf’s two governing bodies - the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) finally agreed to have a unified set of regulations for golf equipment ensuring uniformity to the game worldwide.

COR means the speed with which the ball jumps off the clubface on drivers. A joint proposal between the governing bodies confirmed from January 1, 2008, the Rules of Golf worldwide will be changed, limiting the COR limit to 0.83. Up until December 31, 2007 a Condition of Competition, targeted at competitions for “highly skilled players” (i.e. Professionals and top Amateurs), enabled the Committee in charge of the competition to apply a COR limit of 0.83 – this was the ruling Liang fell foul of.

How I Conquered Siam Country Club, Pattaya?

The story starts last week when I played the Siam Country Club, Plantation Course. Opened only 2 weeks earlier, this fabulous Schmidt-Curley design will set everyone who plays there back about 10 stokes off their handicap. It is easily the most difficult Pattaya golf course, surpassing both St. Andrews Golf Club and Pattana Golf Club for top honors.

After fumbling around for the front nine I realized Lee Schmidt had only one design trick up his sleeve when he laid out this course; namely elevated crowned fast greens with shaved fringes. This design feature can be very frustrating when you hit an otherwise excellent approach shot into the green and wind up some 20 yards below the bole in a deep catchment area.

On the back nine I wised up and called into action my trusted Texas Wedge on every hole; even as far as 40 feet off the greens. This shot was popularized by Ben Hogan when Texas golf courses had a reputation for very hard fairways, and I used the same principle. When my approach shots stopped short of the greens, my putter was the better choice for the next shot because of shortness of the grass on the collar.

Most Underrated Bangkok Golf Course

Bangsai Country Club is a sleeper course………one that does not make theThailand “A” list by most surveys. Opened in 1996 Bangsai Country Club is about 70 minutes north of the Bangkok, but is a trip well worth taking due to its very low cost and excellent layout.

Upon entering the course one may sense that they will be playing a local municipal course in typically so so condition. However, a surprise is in store as it is a refreshing change from the typically flat Bangkok area golf courses and is similar in terrain to one of the most famous courses, Alpine Country Club.

Bangsai is so remote; golfers will feel they are in a wildlife sanctuary due to the number and variety of birds calling along with many water foul patiently fishing the lateral water hazards (or waiting to be caught by your caddy for dinner!).

How Fast Are The Greens In Thailand?

To answer this question a brief review of green speed measuring systems is required. A stimpmeter is typically used to calibrate and compare green speeds from one golf course to the next.  Many Thai golfers are aware of the term but how many know the history of this green speed measuring tool and just how does it work?

The original stimpmeter was developed in 1935 by Edward S. Stimpson an accomplished US amateur golfer. In the mid 1970’s the device was adapted by the USGA and became the standard for measuring green speeds. The official stimpmeter is a 3 foot long aluminum bar with a V channel. This V shaped groove supports the golf ball and allows the ball to roll down with a slight over spin, mimicking that of a normal putt.

The ball rolls down whenever the bar is raised so that there is no human hand interference affecting the speed of the ball as it begins rolling. The speeds of greens are measured in feet, so that a stimpmeter reading of 9.5 means the ball will roll 9 and ½ feet from the end of the stipmeter. If the reading is only 8.0, the ball will roll 1 ½ feet shorter, a significant difference as we all know from playing golf and a very simple process indeed!