Friday, March 20, 2009

Bangkok...here we come...The Pinehurst Golf and Country Club...

The Royal Selangor Golf Club plays a 'home-and-away' interport game with the Royal Bangkok Sports Club every year, with the RSGC team visiting Bangkok usually at the beginning of the year.
Pakdokter and my usual golf 'kakis' took advantage of booking our flights way in advance and were lucky to have secured return-tickets to Bangkok on Malaysia Airlines at just over RM300!
With internet bookings at our finger-tips we were also able to secure comfortable luxurious hotel rooms located at the convenient location of Sukhumvit Soi 11 at a bargain. The Grand President Hotel, Bangkok, is highly recommended if you are thinking of a trip to Bangkok.



pakHyder,pakTgAzman,pakdokter and pakZaid..


RSGC has several reciprocal arrangments with golf clubs in the Bangkok region. With our introduction cards, the four of us, made it to the Pinehurst Golf and Country Club for the first day of golf early Friday morning. The Pinehurst is an easy one hour drive from the hotel, located not too far from the old Don Muang International Airport of Bangkok.
The reciprocal arrangements between our two clubs allowed us to play for a free green fee ! All we had to pay for were the 250 bahts for the caddy and the 800 bahts for the buggy. That's a cheap RM65 for a game of golf in a first class golf course in Bangkok.
pakTgAzman (whose handicap was 28 two months ago!) now plays like a single-handicapper..

The Pinehurst must have been built on a swamp-land or a former rice-field! Water was in play in almost every hole. If you did not have to cross a lake at the tee, you will have streams or lakes on one or both sides of the fairway. If you are a wild hitter, you better bring a lot of golf balls with you. If you do not believe me, you can ask my good friend pakZaid Ibrahim !
a luxurious villa at the resort..


water, water, water.....

Pinehurst is a 27-hole golf course. We played the West and North Courses, and from the blue tee the course measured 6492 yards for a par-72 course. Pakdokter played quite well for the 1st Nine West Course returning a score of 50 with one par to boot. PakZaid and pakTgAzman both returned a score of 51 while the 'tired' pakHyder scored 53.



this was his third ball into the water...




a grinning and cheeky pakTgAzman after a 'birdie' at the par-5 hole No 5 of the North Course..
At the 2nd Nine North Course, pakTgAzman was in his best 'element' and returned a score of 44 with a par and a 'birdie' to boot. PakHyder improved with a score of 51 and the 'old' men of the group, pakdokter and pakZaid only managed a score of 54 each.
We played a game of partnership, changing the partnership after every 6 holes and played a game against each other as well.
So, looking at the returns, I am sure you can guess who collected the most bahts!




but he was too scared of his wife to have this picture taken properly...he was trying to hide behind the girls....
Caddies in Bangkok courses are well trained in their job. However their inability to speak a good-enough English is a disadvantage. They earn 200 bahts from the 250 bahts that we pay to the club for the caddy and they take home all the tips they earn from the golfer. They do not get a monthly salary and has no medical benefits either. So their earnings are not much different from their counterparts in Indonesia or at the RSGC either.








No comments: