Be wary of Thailand golf course superintendents! They can cost you strokes. Thai golf course designers create fair, but challenging courses. However, the Thai superintendents sometimes play tricks on you, especially with tee boxes. I have seen at least one and in most cases up to 50% of tee boxes on golf courses in Thailand be aligned to the out-of-bounds or hazard rather than the fairway. Take for example the Canyon Course at Blue Canyon Country Club in Phuket. Look at where the tees point o...

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 PLAYThe purpose of the tee shot is to put the ball in play.  When golfing in T...

Here is another short putting tip. When golfing in Thailand and I have a putt of ten feet or less (which is practically every hole), I make a slight change in the stance I use for longer putts. I stand so that the ball which is off my left toe on all putts is an inch nearer my foot. I also choke down (up if you are American) on my putter about 1 additional inch so that my hands are slightly nearer to the head of the golf club. Moving the ball in that inch changes the feeling I get about the kin...

Hitting the ball thin, also known as topping the ball, is common among golfers on a Thailand golf tour. It happens allot when golfers do not practice much and then get here ready to tee it up after not playing for weeks, if not months. It's so sad to see golfer’s top the ball when hitting their first approach shot on their first round at say Thai Country Club in Bangkok. Topping an approach shot not only ruins their approach, but adds strokes to their score as well. Instead of being on the...

Did you ever notice that right after you or your mate has that first sip of Singha on the golf course in Thailand that drives fly longer and straighter? Why is this almost always the case? The simple answer is stress, or lack thereof. Stress on the Thailand golf course is an insidious golf "disease". Tension starts in your hands and creeps into every muscle in your body. It breaks your golf swing and it strips it of power and accuracy. When tension gets into your address position, it g...

Does your golf glove become slick when you golf in Thailand; sometimes causing your club to slip during your swing? I know mine does and so do many golfers on holiday in Thailand. Short of carrying a series of golf gloves with you and changing to a new one each hole, which can be very expensive, what can you do? I saw a golfer at Banyan Golf Club in Hua Hin do this and thought to share the golf tip with you. It is a good tip for when you play golf in Thailand. Whether it be high over the jungle ...

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 getti...

My friend’s scoring on the golf courses in Thailand has been improving as of late, however his big concern nowadays is distance. To be honest he just doesn’t get it, he can spend days at the driving range in Bangkok, hitting buckets (actually trays) of balls and yet when he hits the golf course he loses it, coming up short or long of every green. Here is what I figured out. Previously he was using the yardage signs at the driving range to gauge how far he can hit the ball with each of his clubs....

Wedges are called the scoring clubs in Thailand for a reason. With a shorter shaft, more loft and shorter shot distances, golfers should be able to get the ball closer to the hole. In addition, wedges have more versatility than all other clubs as they can be used from tight lies, sand bunkers, and fluffy lies as well as for a variety of shots from full length pitch shots, to mid length and short chip shots, bump and run, soft sand bunker shots and hard sand shots. In order to maximize ones scori...

During the last 6 months golfing in Thailand, I’ve been hitting the ball better due to a lot of practice and some great golf tips from my friends, but until recently I still found myself stuck in the 92-95 range. It seems like every time that I pitch from 5-20 yards off the green, say when playing at Thai Country Club, I end up leaving myself an 10 foot putt.  My short game (for example several 9 irons last month at Amata Springs) were fine, but I felt that if I could get the ball cl...

More times than I like to admit I find myself smack in the middle of the fairway bunkers found on many Thailand golf courses around 220 yards from the white tees.  Whether it is at Thai Country Club or the Chiang Mai Highlands, I have much practice from hitting these shots so I thought it would be good to share a few of my tips on the best way to play out of these fairway hazards. PGA professionals hit long irons out of these bunkers. But you’re probably not a PGA professional, and as...