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

3 Par Saving Chiang Mai Golf Tips

Jim just sent me these tips which outlined how he managed his score when golfing in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai a few weeks ago. I thought I better share them with you before I forget.

1. SHORT GAME – WHERE MOST SHOTS ARE TAKEN (AND WASTED)
Arrive 30 minutes early and head to the practice green. Then, practice chip and pitch shots before heading to the first tee. Chiang Mai Highlands has the best practice area in the area, so why not take advantage of it. Besides it is free and fun. Alpine Chiang Mai and Royal Chiang Mai Golf Club also have good short game practice areas. 

You will find both your short game improves on the golf courses in Asia, as the movements necessary to create good dynamics for ball contact in pitching/chipping will also carry through the whole round.  You will find your confidence building as you start to save more pars by sticking your wedges close – and that confidence will carry over to the approach shots because even if you miss you the green you will believe you can still save par. The vast majority of shots, and the vast majority of wasted shots, occurs within 100 yards of the green!

2. PUTTING – SEE THE LINE
Many different approaches to putting have been successfully used throughout the history of golf, though the one thing all great putters have had in common is that they setup with their eyes along the line of play (they can be over the ball or behind the ball).  If you are looking at the line from an angle, your chances of hitting the ball on the correct line are greatly reduced even if you know where the correct line is.  An easy way to check is take your putting stance on the practice green, than hold your putter next to your eyes with just two fingers and let the putter dangle straight down – take note of where the shaft points.

Is Thailand Golf Vacation Insurance Necessary?

I was golfing at St. Andrews in Pattaya recently, and witnessed an unfortunate accident (thankfully, not involving a client of my Thailand golf vacation company).

A visiting golfer from overseas was driving a golf buggy near to the clubhouse after his round when it appeared that the accelerator pedal jammed. As a result, the buggy smashed through six or seven sets of clubs awaiting their owners’ collection, and into the wall of the clubhouse, causing considerable damage to the golf club sets, the clubhouse and the buggy.

Luckily, no-one was hurt, only the driver was rather shaken up. Quite a crowd quickly gathered and a potentially difficult incident was avoided as the visitor took the sensible approach and agreed to pay up immediately for the damage. The Golf Club denied all liability, saying that this was clearly stated on a notice in the Pro shop. In any case, if a farang (foreigner) is involved in any sort of accident in Thailand, he is almost always held to be in the wrong. The (sort of) logic seems to be that the accident could never have happened if the foreigner had not been here!

I heard afterwards that the visitor, again very sensibly, was covered by a golfer’s insurance policy and his insurance company agreed to cover most of the costs.

All golfers run the risk of injuring another person or adjacent property when on the golf course. No matter how good a player you happen to be, you are liable if you cause injury to a fellow golfer.

3 Thailand Golf Score Improvement Tips

Jim’s just back from golfing in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai and I just got back from watching the Thailand Open in Phuket.

While on his trip Jim came up with these 3 tips that worked for him and I can say after watching the pros in Phuket that the same basic concepts help them as well. Why not apply the tips to your game the next time when golfing in Thailand?  Here they are:

1. ON THE TEE – JUST PUT IT IN PLAY
The purpose of the tee shot is to put the ball in play.  When golfing in Thailand you aren’t going to make a birdie or par based on your tee shot, though you can easily eliminate the possibility by trying to rip a big one down into the narrow part of the fairway.  Be realistic about your abilities, how well you are playing on the particular day and how confident you feel.  Many amateurs on a Thailand golf holiday and playing at unfamiliar golf courses would hit more fairways and get into a lot less trouble by hitting 3 woods from the tee more often, and probably wouldn’t lose that much distance.  As I sometimes say; “The jungles and lakes around Thailand golf courses are full of big hitters”. 

2. KISS
Here I am not referring to KISS your caddie, (ed. although this might not also be a bad idea and I have seen several people try the tip this way), but “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”.  Try to work on eliminating unnecessary motion from your swing.  The more ‘dancing and jiving’ that occurs during your swing, the harder it is going to be to deliver the clubface squarely through impact. Ask your mate to video your swing. Many of today’s digital cameras, which practically all golf holidaymakers in Thailand carry around have a movie-capture option which is ideal for this purpose. You will be very surprised to see what is really going on, versus what you thought your swing looked like. 

Asian Golf Tour Comes To Hua Hin

Thailand’s royal seaside town and one of the best Thailand golf destinations, Hua Hin, will play host what promises to be one of feature tournaments on the Asian Tour. The Black Mountain Masters will be held at the Black Mountain Golf Club Hua Hin from March 23 and 29. It is the first professional golf tournament aimed not just to promote golf in Thailand, but also Hua Hin golf tourism; check out this FREE Hua Hin golf offer.

With a prize pool of US$ 500,000 on offer and an impressive list of  participating golfers, the professional golf tournament should be one of this year’s best. The new tournament is the first Asian Tour sponsored event in Hua Hin and will cement Hua Hin’s position on the map as an exciting golf holiday destination and excellent addition to other popular Thailand golf holiday spots like Phuket and Pattaya.

Along with the other premier area courses, such as the newly opened Banyan Golf Club and the Jack Nicklaus designed Springfield Golf Resort, the course at Black Mountain, voted best new golf course in Thailand, adds to the variety of choice among Hua Hin golf courses.

What I like best about this Hua Hin golf course is the picturesque “Black Mountains” surrounding the course and the landscape incorporating native red grass, which makes for some tough lies off the fairways. A lot of Hua Hin golfers have also provided positive feedback about the great variety of holes and challenge of the layout, especially the back nine par 5’s, several double doglegs par 4’s, and tough undulated greens.  The clubhouse is also of very high standard, serves great European food, and you can see practically the whole golf course while eating and relaxing after golf in the pub area.