It's all about golf

In Finland, not depending of the latitude either, we don't get to play golf in the winter.  Unless you play icegolf with orange balls.  So it is really nice to open the golfing season by practising a bit here in Thailand.  Even though it's very hot (+38 Celcius), with a golf cart one manages to go round 18 holes.


So many nice courses with good price greenfees around Bangkok.  Different layouts from hilly to flat, some very tight and some more park-like.

Anyhow, for two days I've been playing in Bangkok Golf Club, Pathum Thani.  Can recomment to anyone, a very nice course with really fast greens.  Nice hotel 200 m from the course with big rooms and for hotel guests the greenfee is only 1000 THB.  The weather has been very unpredictable with thunder and heavy showers, but so far I've been very lucky starting to play early in the morning and keeping dry.

Today I visited Muang Ake Golf Course:  Not quite as good as Bangkok Golf Club, but still a very nice course with lots of character and interesting wildlife...  This monitor lizard was about 1,5 meters in length...

Here you cannot pay with credit card, all in cash.  They have another course 10 minutes away called the Vista, no golf carts, only walking.

Plenty of water, lakes and ponds so it is challenging enough.  Some nice long holes, especially from the black back tee.  On many courses in Thailand they have a really weird grass with thick leaves;  Plays havoc with my game!  After rain when the ground is soggy and wet, this grass sucks the clubhead into the ground causing a lot of duffing.  Very thick and sticky!

The bunkers were ok, some with water still in after rains, here I was extremely lucky with my approach shot that I pulled a bit left and long, just staying out...

All in all, very nice golf experiences!  Maybe I will play another 18 holes this afternoon here at the Bangkok Golf Club...  My departure from the hotel is at 23.30 hrs, so I have the whole day to kill.  Then China Airlines flight to Amsterdam, KLM to Helsinki and Finncom domestic flight to Jyvaskyla.  A long way...