Thailand Golf Holidays, Phuket Golf Packages, Hua Hin Golf Vacations

Thailand: Golf and My 2008 Ryder Cup Plans

If you are planning a Thailand golfing holiday later this year, you may wish to consider being here at the same time as the Ryder Cup. The 2008 USA versus Europe shootout is scheduled for the weekend of 19-21 September at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Thailand is a great place to catch all of the action on TV at one of the many sports bars in the main golfing centers. Valhalla is the Jack Nicklaus designed course where Tiger Woods beat Bob May in a thrilling US PGA play-off in 2000 on his way to a sweep of the four majors. Kentucky is 11 hours behind us.

I for one can not wait for this great event to start. Here’s how I plan to spend that week-end:

On Friday, September 19, after finishing work in Bangkok, I’ll probably head for somewhere like The Londoner on Sukhumvit Soi 33 with its super array of large TV screens, a wide selection of beers brewed on site, a good range of both Thai and Western food. Play begins at 7 pm Thailand time and I’ll probably watch the golf through until the early hours.

Santiburi Samui Country Club

Santiburi Samui Country Club is one of the two most beautiful golf courses in Thailand, with scenic sea view panoramas on almost every hole. Only Red Mountain in Phuket comes close to having such spectacular scenery. Santiburi may also be the most challenging Thailand golf course due to steep elevation changes and lost ball possibilities both left and right, again on almost every hole.  So take your camera and a good supply of balls, leave your ego at home, and have a great time golfing at Santiburi Samui Country Club.

Developed and owned by the same family that brings us Singha beer, everything about Santiburi Samui Country Club (and the 5-star Santiburi Samui Resort) is first class; beautiful clubhouse, restaurants that serve up tasty Thai and western dishes (along with fresh Singha of course), fine Thai service, and a very special golf course.

Santiburi Samui Country Club requires the golfer to use creativity in hitting a wide variety of shots; including many you won’t normally encounter elsewhere. Narrow fairways with mostly up hill or down hill lies make approach shots very challenging. Oversize greens make getting on in regulation a little bit easier; a small saving grace!

However, be forewarned, the views can be very distracting. Coconut palm tree covered mountains, offshore islands, spectacular sloops and sailing junks, and the Gulf of Thailand visible from almost every hole make it difficult to concentrate on your golf.  Moreover, according to Golf Operations Manager Jakraphong Thongyai (Khun Jay), the sea changes color everyday, and after rain showers the course is graced with waterfalls and rainbows; what better image of the penultimate golfer’s paradise.

Hua Hin Golf Update

This week I had the pleasure of playing the Hua Hin golf courses. In general, Hua Hin is seeing less golf visitors due to the resurgence of Phuket as the number one Thailand golf destination. Hua Hin golf clubs, resorts, and golf travel operators have all experienced a slowdown this past season. This week despite the Hua Hin Jazz Festival being in town, Hua Hin was relatively quiet.

That being said, the golf courses, costs, and weather conditions are all favor some excellent golf. Specifially,

Black Mountain Golf Club: After replacing 10 “sinking” greens, the course is back to excellent playing conditions, Currently there are only 2 temporary greens (#10 and #11) due to hole #11 being re-laid out. Management continue to invest heavily in maintenance and this is evidenced by the new internal waste areas, improved tee areas with wider variety of difficultly levels,  and the aforementioned greens upgrading. Black Mountain  is being readied for the Asian PGA event to be held March 2009.

Two Thailand Golf Chip Shots

Lately my game has been pretty good, well at least I am consistently shooting my handicap. 

Then one day three weeks ago while playing the Faldo designed Summit Windmill golf course in Bangkok our golf professional advised me to analyze my shot statistics to find out what was going “right” with my game.

Two rounds later, (1) at Amata Spring Country Club in Bangkok and (2) Siam Country Club in Pattaya, I found out what was the key to getting my Thailand golf scores down. You see I was getting to within 10-20 yards of 12-14 greens in regulation, which told me my long game was pretty good. Then I realized that getting up and down was the key to scoring well. Since my putting from within 5 feet or so was fine, it was those dreaded long ones that were limiting my score, and probably yours too.

Rather than work on sinking more 20 or 30 foot putts, a highly unlikely feat even for the golf pros, I decided to work on eliminating the long putts by mastering two shots around the greens: a low runner and a mid-to high flyer. Knowing how to hit these two approach shots got me to within 5 feet of the pin and saved me strokes. When putting, I find it's always nice to have 3-4 foot ones instead of 10 plus footers needed to save par.

Japanese Golf Course Designers In Thailand (Part 3)

Leave it to the Japanese to not only design great golf courses by individuals, but also by corporations. That’s right major Japanese companies are also involved in golf course design and they also have left their mark on Thailand golf courses.

One of the more interesting Japanese golf course developments in Thailand is Bangpra International Golf Club, which was originally built in 1958, one of the first golf courses in the Pattaya area. Then in 1988, the course and facilities were completely updated as a joint venture between the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Japan Golf Professional Inc., although the design is officially attributed to the Japan Golf Promotion Co., Ltd. This was the first project as a purpose built golf facility to promote golf tourism in Thailand and today remains one of the best kept mature courses in the Pattaya area.