Day 1: Mike Clark in Thailand

Today started the official Thailand tour and the course today was Loch Palm….it did not disappoint.

Let’s preface today’s action by how we got to this point.

22 hours of actual sitting on the plane not counting layovers and a delayed flight. Indestructible samsonite luggage arrives with one wheel off and replaced with a six inch hole in the bottom with what appeared to be a pair of foot joy socks peeking out and at the time of my arrival last night, my golf clubs were somewhere between Chicago and Istanbul.

I am now in Phuket, a beach town that’s a mixture of elegant hotels and condos and a lot of third world set in between them. It all works well and people are incredibly friendly.

My caddie today was Darane who has 15 years experience at this club. The caddies mean business and won’t let you touch a club not handed to you or the flagstick. She was not crazy about me not putting with the line and I did give into her a few times.

Today’s golf was played with at least a 12-15 year old rental set of Titliest API clubs of some sort with spaghetti shafts. Since all my gear is still in route I had to buy a pair of nock off Hoka shoes in the night market just to have something to play in. All in all it was a great experience.

The greens were about perfect and what appeared to be some sort of Bermuda grass, and the fairways were very tight. I sent a pic of some type of grass I’m not familiar with that is also in some fairways. It’s wide bladed and coarse. I was in a couple of bunkers but they were very playable.

I will say that it’s HOT. It’s Hot at night, it’s hot in the morning and only gets hotter during the day. There is a time for hot and wet, but not when it’s every article of clothing I’m wearing plus the golf glove and the grips. I don’t know how these gals do it all bundled up like they are but they do their job happily and with a smile.

I enclosed a pic of the scorecard she kept and the unusual scoring system she used. Hopefully tomorrow my golf equipment will finally arrive before I leave to play again.

Thanks to Jimmy Eichelberger and the apple dot he gave me, it does appear that the clubs and I are nearing a happy reunion. All in all I’m headed for a swim and then dinner.

Life doesn’t suck!