In the past I described how you can save money by buying used golf balls at Thailand golf courses. So it got me thinking last week after loosing a few balls in the water at Thai Country Club if the new golf balls that I was using were really helping my game?

Then, a friend drew my attention to four unique Thailand golf balls- well, five really if you include the one from Ted Hoz from the USA. Ted says that he has everything from a ball with the Lord’s Prayer written on it, to a ball advertising a brothel. Now there is a new Thai marketing idea for places like Annies, Emanuele or Poseidon, and probably best left for the subject of another post all together.

The four other unique Thailand golf balls are:

1. The Nike Juice ball which is frozen – resulting, it is claimed, in up to an extra 10 yards on to your drives. You ship the balls to Nike USA, Thailand is too hot for this procedure, where they go into a freezer at minus 300° Celsius. The balls stay in the freezer for 72 hours before being brought back to room temperature. Nike says that this process changes the molecular structure of the ball, making it stronger and more durable. I want to try one on my next round at Alpine Golf Club.

2. Jack Nicklaus built a golf course on Grand Cayman in the 1980’s. There was not enough land to build a full-size course, so a half-sized course was the solution and someone designed a golf ball that would only travel half as far as a normal ball. The Cayman ball behaves much like any other ball, except that it goes nowhere. This would be a real bummer at a Thailand golf course!

3. Then there is the Floater ball that looks and feels exactly like a normal golf ball, but with one important difference. It floats! You’ll never lose a ball in a Thailand water hazard again because when in the klong your caddie can simply scoop the ball off the surface with a ball retriever.

4. Then there is the Masters Aurora flashing ball, designed for night golf. It can be used at Panya Indra, Summit Windmill, Pinehurst, and Muang-Ake Vista golf clubs in Bangkok. Once hit, the ball flashes bright red for five minutes making it all but impossible to lose. This also is the perfect solution for late afternoon Hua Hin golf, when you run out of daylight with a couple of holes left to play.

This reminds me of the Thai golfer who, as he tees off with his usual partner, tells him that he has this marvelous new golf ball which flashes and whistles when it heads off into the rough. “That’s great”, says his partner. “Where did you get that?” “Oh, I found it” replies the golfer!

Have fun and remember it is not the ball that counts, it is the score!

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