Thailand is known as a great tourist destination and over the last twenty years has also developed into a perfect destination for a golfing holiday. With an enviable winter climate, it is a great place to escape the northern European winter and enjoy the fantastic culture and beautiful golf courses liberally scattered around Thailand, especially near Bangkok and Hua Hin.
The capital Bangkok is heaving with millions of hard-working industrious people, buzzing about on scooters and tuk tuks, adding to the many hold-ups in the traffic, whilst the Chao Phraya River is constantly busy with long-tail boats, ferries and commercial boats and barges chugging up and down, connecting the city with all of its many beautiful temples and ornate shrines that it is so famous for. Bangkok is a city of contrasts, with action at every turn: marvel at the golden temples and shrines, grab a tuk tuk through the bustling Chinatown, or take a long-tail boat along the back canals to glimpse local life. Eating out is another Bangkok highlight, from local dishes served at humble street stalls to haute cuisine at rooftop restaurants with dramatic city views, perhaps with a foot or back massage at one of the many massage shops to finish off the evening. Luxury shopping malls compete with a sea of boutiques and markets, where you can treat yourself without overspending. Five-star hotels and surprisingly cheap serviced apartments welcome you with the same famed Thai hospitality. And no visit to Bangkok would be complete without a glimpse of its famous nightlife, be it nightclubs, cabarets or exotic red-light districts, Bangkok never ceases to amaze.
Winter temperatures easily reach well into the 30s and it is vital to have proper head gear and sunblock to ensure you enjoy the golf course without any problems from the intense sunshine. It is also very important that you stay fully hydrated throughout the day.
This month we are featuring two golf courses located close to the city, Thai Country Club and Nikanti Golf Club.
Thai Country Club
One of the most prestigious courses in Thailand and designed by Denis Griffiths to USPGA standards, the award-winning Thai Country Club has played host to numerous major international events, including the 1997 Asian Honda Classic (won by Tiger Woods) and the 2007 and 2008 Volvo Masters. The course is located 30 miles to the east of Bangkok and has a par 72 layout, cut through rolling parkland liberally sprinkled with water hazards.
First impressions of the course are impressive with the grounds around the spacious clubhouse being immaculately presented, with lush vegetation and flowering shrubs clipped perfectly.
The facilities in the clubhouse are excellent, with the changing rooms boasting a jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. There is also a well-stocked pro shop with plenty of premium brand merchandise for both men and ladies. The quality of the course is excellent, and the distances vary hugely to cater for all players: playing from the black tees, the course measures an impressive 7097 yds, from the blues 6520 yds, whites 6034 yds and from the reds 5248 yds.
For the visiting golfer, wishing to play in a golf buggy, Thailand is an exceptional experience. You are not allowed to drive your own golf buggy or even share one with your partner, as you are required to use one of the onsite caddies, who are all local women dressed from head to toe in smart uniforms to protect them from the sun. The sun is very strong in Thailand and Asian people take their skin care very seriously: it is not unusual to see local people completely covered up when they venture out into the sunshine. Not perhaps the Western way, but it also adds a great charm to the region. The caddies have great knowledge of the course and offer accurate advice on the greens, which is most welcomed due to the interesting lines created by the nap of the grass. Essentially, this type of grass is much more linear and tends to follow the sun. A putt against the grain is much slower than one which follows the nap. The caddies will also provide you with yardages and will help with club selection on an individual shot. Of course, the keener golfers may wish to work this out for themselves.
At the Thai Country Club, the greens are very fast and a downhill putt which follows the nap will be almost impossible to stop by the hole. This is the course’s main defence, but not one to be underestimated. The greens are also heavily bunkered and so it is vital to ensure you have as many uphill putts as possible if you want to score your best. The rough is kept to a minimum and the difficulties of the course are focused around the green complexes which provide a great challenge even if accuracy from the tee isn’t at a premium.
The fairways are immaculate, with virtually no blemishes, just a stunning carpet of deep, lush green. In the main the layout is relatively flat with wide fairways and so a good course to play first to warm up, before playing some of the other courses in the area which are more challenging and tight.
There is a buggy path that runs along every hole and golf buggies are restricted in use in areas around the tees and greens. The caddies stick perfectly to this rule and so there is plenty of opportunity to get some exercise even if you are using a golf buggy.
Green fees range from 6000 Baht (around £140) to 7600 Baht for 18 holes, buggy and caddy. The caddy requires a 500 TB (£12 approx) tip at the end of the round, and you are expected to grade the caddy’s competence afterwards to ensure the quality of advice is reported. There is a smart uncovered grass range for practice before the round, where the range balls are included, which is perfect for warming up, along with the usual chipping and putting greens.
As part of the customer experience, each visitor is presented with a key on arrival. This numbered key provides all the credit you will need on site during your stay and can be used to pay for coffees, beers, snack food and purchases in the golf shop. It is also the key to the locker, which is part of a very luxurious changing area. At the end of your visit, golfers simply square up their account before departure. This is extremely convenient, and cleverly increases the amount spent by each visitor. All in all, the Thai Country Club is a fabulous course to visit, in top quality condition without being overly punishing.
More details are available here: www.thaicountryclub.com
Nikanti Golf Club
Nikanti Golf Club is located 27 miles to the west of Bangkok. In real terms this means over an hour’s worth of driving as the congested streets and highways are often filled with a multitude of different types of vehicle to thwart fast travel. Nevertheless, staying in Bangkok is lively and fun and it’s definitely worth staying there and then driving to the outskirts for your golf.
The design of Nikanti is to thrill and amaze – it makes for a tough round unless your golf game is dialled in with the suitable precision to take on the various challenges. As with most courses in Thailand, there are a selection of tees which give five differing options on the length of course that you can select to play, the championship tees being only for the masochists who wish to play not only a devilishly-difficult design, but one measuring over 7000 yards.
The course is immaculately prepared and laid out, with much of its defence being on the severe undulations on the fairways, but more importantly on and around the greens. Many of the greens have multiple tiers and interesting shapes – some pins cannot be accessed directly even if a player has found the putting surface, and they are super fast, adding to the difficulty.
The bunkers are deep and cavernous with plenty of sand. This is not really a criticism, but it is far harder to play a sharp and crisp controlled bunker shot from a soft fluffy and sometimes partially plugged lie, rather than a traditional, more compacted sand bunker. It is a bit tiresome listening to people complaining about bunkers as they are designed to be hazards and best avoided in a round of golf, nevertheless, I have a little sympathy for those who find the bunkers at Nikanti Golf Club hard to love.
There are various grades of rough and planting which make for a very scenic round, but also provide areas of impenetrable rough. The final threat to your scorecard comes from water. The water features are all beautiful. They twinkle seductively when first viewed, but are carefully positioned to destroy your scorecard and must be avoided at all costs. In such hot temperatures, it is vital that all areas of the course are fully irrigated and the water features not only provide beauty and golfing terror, but act as the main reservoirs for the irrigation system.
There is not a blade of grass out of place and the same attention to detail is true of the clubhouse. Its design is simplistic, angular and square, yet once inside it is comfortable and luxurious and provides superb views over the course. There’s an excellent range of food available and a well-stocked golf shop, as you would expect. Washing and bathing in Asia is often quite a ceremony so it’s no surprise that the changing rooms are far more luxurious and better-equipped than anything you’ll find in a British golf clubhouse. As with all courses in Thailand, there is a strict rule that players in buggies must also take a caddy, dressed traditionally from head to toe in the club uniform, acting as a chauffeur, guide and counsellor as you navigate the course. They are extremely professional and add greatly to the fun and, one must say, cost of the round.
There has clearly been a massive investment to set up Nikanti Golf Club. Very little is left to chance and almost every aspect of the golfing experience is beautifully catered for. The one huge surprise however, is that there is no golf range. Golfers of all sorts like to warm up before play, take lessons, practice after their round, visit the club just to hit a few balls when they don’t have enough time or energy for a full or partial round of golf. Golf courses with decent practice facilities have the ability to grow more members, providing they enlist the services of suitable golf professionals who are gifted at bringing on new talent, so to not have a golf range here almost seems like an oversight. Especially when it is relatively easy to create a golf pod with a limited flight facility if you do not have space for a large and more open golf range.
The golf course is designed in three loops of six, making it easy to enjoy a full-length round or six or 12 holes. All of these loops return to the clubhouse and, keeping to the theme of six, there are six par fives, six par threes and six par fours. This was a favourite system of the great player and highly respected architect, Seve Ballesteros. Seve was keen on the system because par 3s and par 5s, which are normally only rationed to four of each on a standard par-72 layout, provide more of the thrills and spills that you would expect to find on an exciting golf course. In fact, the course was designed by Khan Pirapon Namatra of Golf East, one of Asia’s leading golf design companies, and fully takes advantage of the naturally rolling terrain in the area. Measuring just over 7000 yards from the back tees, each group of six holes is distinctive in look, design and play. This 6-6-6 concept takes inspiration from the six senses in Buddhism and is part of Nikanti’s brand philosophy.
Green fees range from 5500-6500 TB (£130-£155 approx). Included in the package for visitors is an all-day buffet in the clubhouse restaurant, buggy and caddy.
Nikanti Golf Club is a beautiful golfing adventure and definitely one not to miss if you are in this part of Thailand. It would not be one that I would mark down as a membership option, as its design, whilst interesting, almost verges on card-wrecking spite on some holes!
More details are available here: www.nikantigolfclub.com