October is the wettest month in Thailand and the coastal areas in particular are taking a real beating. How does this effect golf in a place, say like Hua Hin? This week I visited to both Imperial Lake View Golf Club and Springfield Village Golf and Spa to check things out for myself.
The daily rains come almost exactly at 1:00PM each day and then showers result in off and down pours throughout the afternoon. Both days I was out we were able to easily play a full 18 holes without interruption, thus re-enforcing my prior claims that golf is an all round sport in Thailand.
What about course conditions? Springfield was amazingly dry as it is built on a large sandy base with loads of man made drainage under the tee boxes, fairways, and greens. In fact on some greens there was evidence of spots that are dried out and could actually use more water!
Lake View is built more following the original land contours. This makes the fairways muddy and increases the likelihood of standing water in places immediately following a heavy down pour. On a few of the holes we played preferred lies, as it is no fun to hit a ball caked with mud. However, this was nothing more than a quick ball cleaning a replacement in the fairway.
One of the good points about October golfing is that the courses are practically empty. Tourists have yet to arrive and locals make excused about the threatening rains. I think over the 2 days we encountered no more than 4-5 other groups playing on each course, thus facilitating our 4-hour walking rounds.
Another positive concerning Thailand golf during this time of year is the cooler temperatures due to generally overcast skies. This helps reduce heat fatigue and adds to the overall golf playing enjoyment.
If anyone has any other October Thailand golf stories, please feel free to comment here or In the meantime, if you need to reach me you can contact me at my Thailand golf travel company.
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