Do you want to be admired and respected by golf club staff, caddies and other local Thais on your Thailand golf vacation? Here’s a tip: learn a few words of Thai golf vocabulary!

Aside from hello and goodbye (sawadee), are you well? (sabai dee mai), and what is your name? (khun chue arai), good luck (chok dee) is a nice thing to say when you are leaving someone, or when having a drink and raising your glass to someone (like “Cheers!”).

Remember, though, to be polite by ending with krap if you are male (even if this grates on western ears), or kaa if you are female.

Thailand golfing terms include: golf course (sanam golf), go to play golf (bai len golf), wood (maai), iron (lek), left (sai), right (gwaa), straight (trong), uphill (tee lum), downhill (tee soong), and small or little (nid noi).

Golf being a numbers game it is useful to have some idea of the numbering system in Thailand and it is relatively easy to pick it up (if you forget for a moment that Thai is a tonal language and if you don’t get the tone exactly right then you might be saying a completely different word!).

Thai Numbers:
1    neung        11    sib-et            21    yee-sib et         31    sam-sib et
2    song          12    sib-song        22    yee-sib song     32    sam-sib song
3    sam           13    sib-sam        23    yee-sib sam      33    sam-sib sam
4    see            14    sib-see         24    yee-sib see       34    sam-sib see
5    ha              15    sib-ha           25    yee-sib ha        35    sam-sib ha
6    hok            16    sib-hok         26    yee-sib hok       36    sam-sib hok
7    jed             17    sib-jed          27    yee-sib jed        37    sam-sib jed
8    bad            18    sib-bad         28    yee-sib bad       38    sam-sib bad
9    gow           19    sib-gow         29    yee-sib gow       39    sam-sib gow
10  sib             20    yee-sib         30    sam-sib             40    see-sib

100       roi
1,000    paan

Thus, 5-iron would be lek ha, 3-wood maai sam, and four hundred baht see roi baht.

So then what is the meaning of??  Wannee bai len golf krap. Chok dee krap. Sawasdee krap!!

Of course it is:                                 Today, we go and play golf. Good luck and goodbye!!

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