Day 10: Mike Clark in Thailand

Introducing Noi….. the best caddie in Thailand.

Well if you have been following the blog, you will have certainly been aware that every round you play in Thailand is accompanied by an official female caddie in uniform. It is prohibited to play without one by your side at all times. In my limited rounds I’ve had a few good, one very good and one absolutely of zero help.

Noi is an absolute professional. Mind you it’s 97 degrees here today and she’s wearing black pants, polyester top with a black turtleneck underneath and a black hat. It’s a required uniform but I’ve also learned that these gals don’t want to be tan. Pale skin is considered attractive and Tan is considered working class and looked down upon. (Which makes Ray Sharma the hardest working guy I know I guess?) Now I understand the white, slimey, pasty, makeup situation from a few caddies ago.

It doesn’t take Noi anytime to figure my approximate yardages and she’s trying very hard to offer helpful advice on every hole and every shot. She’s pulling hard for me and wants birdies as badly as I, but I can’t oblige her. I’m missing greens, missing putts and making bogeys from the fringe and basically doing my best to squander good opportunities in route to another lackluster 76.  None the less, I gave Noi enough Thai Baht for a job well done to bump her into the next tax bracket.

Black Mountain is a heck of a course. There are 3 nines here and we played the best 2. I joined three nice guys from Sweden again here on holiday and they were all pleasant to play with.

The only downer to the day is that the golf course and this entire area is burnt up like the Sahara desert. There are some spectacular water features that according to Noi are very beautiful, but there has been no rain here for months and they are now just stagnant ponds. No running waterfalls …. Nothing but dry rocks. There is no fairway irrigation and greens are watered by hand. This place is easily as dry as Vegas and just as darn hot.

This has been an eye opening experience for me regarding my game and weaknesses. I know playing the ball down everywhere is very beneficial, as you have to improvise what you do with the club, the ball and the lie. It’s got to make you a better player in the end.

Although our club at home does not have the best practice facilities, I’d dearly love to hit a bunch of balls and chip and putt till dark to address some obvious hiccups. I take that for granted and those facilities at good ol’ FCCC are much better than anything I’ve found around here.

Tomorrow I’m off to Banyan CC with high hopes of some red numbers!

Cheers from Hua Hin !