Here is the continuation of the post I started yesterday.
Caddies are very knowledgeable about the rules of golf, and quite amazingly, after only a few shots they can club you extremely accurately. The more experienced ones are a fantastic assistance on the greens, being very accurate with their assessment of the speed and line of your putt. They will mark and clean your ball on the green, leaving you only to put the ball in the hole. Remember; do not blame them if you miss as it means you have not got the combination of speed and line right!
The caddies have a great sense of humour, and in typical Thai style, they enjoy a joke with the players. Also, and it is not uncommon for them to have side bets between themselves on which player they think will win. This all adds up to a great atmosphere on the course.
They are extremely accurate whilst ball spotting and it never ceases to amaze me how easily they find the errant tee shots. One comment you may hear frequently is the phrase ‘hasip, hasip’. Translated into English this means 50/50, and is always the reply you hear if you hit a shot slightly of line and enquire if it is in a bunker or a water hazard. The caddies are very clever and never commit themselves to stating where your ball may have, or may not have finished.
If you play the same course regularly, and have a particular favourite, then there is no problem in booking the caddy in advance. This is all part of the wonderful service whilst playing golf in Thailand.
The caddies enjoy the experience of working with holiday makers, as they are treated very differently to that of the locals. It is more of a cultural status thing than anything else. You will go particularly up in their estimation if you buy them a soft drink such as a coke at one of the many drink stops throughout the course, but this is certainly not expected.
At the end of your round they will make sure your cubs are all cleaned, and safely transfer your bag to the transport you arrived in, leaving you to go and have that welcome shower and refreshments in the clubhouse.
A tip for this great service is certainly expected, and very gratefully received. The amount is entirely up to the individual themselves but I would recommend an amount of 300 baht as a minimum, and 500 baht or more if you are very pleased with their services. Once again, this is a very small token for such a wonderful service they have performed.
The Thai caddy is certainly a very valuable and much appreciated part of golf in Thailand, and I are sure you will find it to be a great great experience and wonderful part of golf in Thailand.
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2 Responses
I play mostly at Blue Canyon and Loch Palm and there are quite a few useleses and lazy caddies too. Generally, they are pretty good though and I like to tip 300 Baht for the average caddy, 250 for a duff one if I have a spare 50 Baht and more for those rare occasions when I have played really well and the caddy was of great help. What does everyone else do if they have a useless (and sometimes even obnoxious) caddy?
Get the h..ll out of there and never look back!
Just experienced two very obnoxious and money-driven caddies yesterday. The caddy fee was already paid times 2 – and still the caddies demanded a fee twice the standard. Yeah, and they wanted my beloved Titleist pro V1’s after the game – they almost insisted on it – bring so persuasive! However, my caddy was competent, so no problem in giving a little extra here. The other caddy, however, was incompetent and rude – so why the hell exspect that little extra in tips etc. Try a mirror! Just my message from Hua Hin