More about Golf

In the last 10 days I have played Lake View (Hua Hin), Royal Ratchaburi (twice) & Dragon Hills. Thanks to a member's concession I only (!) payed 1500 baht at Lake View as opposed to 2,500 on a pay and play basis. Royal was 750 and Dragon Hills 650. Now you'll agree there is a huge difference between the Golfer's Paradise green fee and those in Ratchaburi. Add a minimum 200 baht tip for the caddy and you can calculate the cost of the round. In addition to being the cheapest Dragon Hills also has the cheapest drinks, basically half what you pay at the other courses... a bottle of water costs 10 baht, a coke 15 baht and so on. Now here is the controversial bit, Lake View is a nice course but it is not a golfing experience or challenge in the way Royal and Dragon Hills are and it is certainly not in better condition or better maintained.

So is there any surprise I met Greg from Nova Scotia, Canada at Royal a few weeks ago? Guess where Greg lives? Golfer's Paradise, aka Hua Hin Cha am. He and his partner winter here and have taken a stance against the exorbitant prices charged in Golfer's Paradise. They have calculated they can save money by driving up to Ratchaburi, staying overnight in a hotel and playing two rounds of golf. Not only is the golf cheaper even if you add the additional expense of a hotel, everything is cheaper and the locals are a lot friendlier and Ratchaburi, while not exactly kicking by night, is very relaxed and easy going. You can sit out and eat nice food and have a few drinks and watch the world go by and nobody is going to growl at you or try to flog you anything. More and more people are doing this. Golfer's Paradise? Golfer's Heist more like.

Right now I have to say Dragon Hills comes out just ahead of Royal. It is in good condition despite the dry conditions and because it is higher up it gets less precipitation in any event. I think in the past Dragon Hills has not been well looked after or well run hence some adverse comments. I can assure you that right now it is a treat all round and the people involved in running it are generally helpful and friendly, appear to understand golfers and actually seem to like golfers. When the rains come later in the year I think Dragon Hills might be an amazing experience.

Now that I mention Nova Scotia, New Scotland in Latin,did you know that it has more Scots Gaelic speakers than Scotland itself?! I guess we have to thank the English for that when they moved the people out of the Highland and Islands and replaced them with sheep! Nova Scotia was one of the key destinations in this Scottish diaspora. The people were transported from the north to Greenock, near Glasgow where they boarded ships for North America.