Mike Clark in Thailand: Chapter 9

Well as much as the direction of my play went south yesterday, today things made a U turn for straight North. 

That’s golf for you.

Last evening I received word that I’m now “IN” at Robinswood as the special invited guest of Marc Siegel, the owner of Golf Asian.

 

I guess my wheel did enough squeaking that the powers that be felt it needed attention, but they also let it slip that they might just be reading my blog…. So thanks again Tom first all your hard work posting my scribble.

After a very lengthy Toyota Camry ride through morning Bangkok traffic expertly navigated through the maze of scooters, trucks and other assorted obstacles, we hit the open pavement leaving the city behind us in the rear view mirror. “Neung” my driver has never seen a speed limit sign apparently worth reading and as we flash past them on the interstate, I believe the sign I tried to read said 80km. A quick glance at the console over his shoulder reveals 138km and the engine revs onward. An hour later finds us out in farmland and turning into the nicely manicured entrance of Bangsai Country Club.

 

“Loy” is my girl today and she did a marvelous job of getting me around this place. Only 2 bogeys against 3 birdies yields a moral boosting -1.

 

Although this course is not covered with flowers and manicured shrubbery, it saves its teeth for the quality of the turf. Plenty of forced carry over lily pad covered water or well planned bunkers and hazards on one side of the fairway or the other make good tee shots here mandatory. 

I played just as a single but was graciously waved thru several smiling foursomes of Japanese which made for a pleasant day.

My gal "Loy" on the bag today

Enterance to Bangsai CC

Bring you driver "A" game to this place

View from the course

"Loy" has that "stop f...ing around with the camera look" and play golf

Nice par 3

Loy doing her best to line things up

On the tee

This gal is done with her caddie duty but now is required to fill divots 1 day a week after her round... club rule

"Neung" my driver and future Formula One star

Mike Clark in Thailand: Chapter 8

Thana City CC kicked my ass today. Some days you own golf, other days it owns you. Despite a really nice caddie by the name of “Koy” it was an outright struggle all day. The place was absolutely swarming with groups of golfers and I’m paired with a couple of Japanese women who are absolutely dead set on receiving ZERO sunshine. They look like potential bank robbers in high end golf apparel. 

Despite doing my best to listen intently to their names, I’d just “F” it up if I tried to mention them here. That being said, they were very nice, they came to play and they both had decent swings. Both women hit the driver very well, but they just could not put several shots together to score.

I’m not sure what the fixation is with bi colored Srixon golf balls but Srixon must impressively market them to Asian women.

 

Thana City Cc gobbled up these ladies balls like my dog Molly does a piece of deer sausage that accidentally hits the floor. They each happily lost a solid dozen apiece. The greens today were heavily top dressed and extremely fast. Koy and I could not get on the same page with reads, but in her defense they were pretty sandy, but yet the ball rolled and rolled. I didn’t have any three putts but made 6 bogeys and zero birdies to offset the mistakes I kept making. We all have those days where the shortgame is a tad bit off. Despite my best efforts I could not get the darn ball close enough for easy up and downs.

It also took darn near 6 hours to play golf today, but hell with it. I just relaxed and enjoyed the experience.

 

I’m thinking seriously about purchasing one of those bank robber face masks….. or maybe not.

"Koy" caddie of day!

Thana City is a Greg Norman designed course with a first class driving range with Trackman... It didn't help today

Ready for golf or robbery

Clubhouse

First tee cluster waiting our turn

Very nice par 3

Ladies in action

Scenes from the course

Views from the course

Ladies in action

Good thing we brought the umbrellas... As if the sun could penetrate the layers & layers these gals had on.

These gals had a nice swing but had a lot of trouble with the h2o