Golf travelers to Thailand should be very concerned about the weather as it can have a dramatic affect on the success of your trip.
September and October are the wettest months of the year (see insert at left) and this year in no exception. Yearly flooding throughout the country continues, with the north east and central areas the most affected. In addition, low lying areas in and around Bangkok have standing water and are best avoided until the rains subside later this month.
The northern cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai see daily showers, however the heavier rains seen last month have subsided and everything is normal.
Coastal town and resort islands of Pattaya/Hua Hin and Phuket/Samui, respectively all are experiencing scattered showers, mainly in the late afternoon and evenings.
What does all that mean for Thailand golfing? Well the short answer is practically nothing. Read on…
All the golf courses are open as usual and except for playing preferred lies where there is mud on some fairways, golf goes on normally. Also, remember this is the tropics, so when it is raining, the temperatures are warm. Sometimes a shower will actually be a relief and cool things down a bit, from otherwise very hot temperatures.
As I have always said, golf is a year round sport here, and in over 15 years of playing golf in Thailand I have personally only been rained out only once. Yeah, sure there are some minor delays and inconveniences. However, a 15 minute break with cool drink at a rest stop or a free lift and freshly cleaned ball in the fairway can easily deal with the wet weather days.
In addition, and a bit early, I have seen the sun peeking out in the lest days and when this happens you can get a glimpse of the lower humidity and temperatures that are only a few days ahead, when the best golf season starts in earnest.
If anyone has any questions about specific course conditions, please do let me know by posting a comment here or sending me an email at my Thailand golf vacation company.
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6 Responses
I don’t know if you have any readers playing in the Bangkok area, but for what it is worth I played the Army course at Ram Indra on Tuesday and it was a shambles. It is Bt1100 for non-Thai and various rates for Thais some retired army pay about Bt60 but the majority of players more around Bt200; the result is that the course is crowded and slow. this is not a complaint and it is possible to have a good round but you need to be lucky. The shambolic aspect is that there is no management whatsoever and the courses are played as two nines. I managed to join four Thais and when we got to the tenth there was a wait of an hour or more because they had accepted a group for a tournament starting on the tenth. I said my good-byes, and the others in the group agreed that if they had known they would not have started either. Before going to England for the summer I played in a regular group on Tuesdays and had some delightful rounds there and I appreciate that it is a facility for the Thai forces but it is listed in publications on golf. An example of the sort of thinking is that there is a sign giving a price for members- guests in English which the desk maintains does not apply to non-thais! Ram Indra road is having a flyover built at the “Laat Pra Cow” junction so you probably want to avoid the area anyway.
Reg,
Thanks for the information. There is an old saying, you get what you paid for. All of the Army courses in Thailand are meant for locals and as such are not recommended.
The one exception might be the Pulalaung Navy Course in Pattaya, but that is not Army anyway, isn’t it?
I think I would agree with you if I was paying the Thai price, that, I think is my point. Putaluang does not have a great record either; Pattaya sports Club crossed it off their list of venues a few years ago when it was made clear that the rules of etiquette are applied after precedence is taken by Thais. Oh dear I do sound like a “wingeing pom”, you are right if we stick to the commercial courses unless invited to the others,all should be well.
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I find the golf season to be very short in the eastern seaboard area of Thailand because the blasted rainy season lasts 6-7 months here. Even though it doesn’t rain all the time everyday, there’s too much uncertainty about when the clouds will open and douse out an otherwise nice day of golf. Here is is November 7, and the sky is still predominately cloudy and the rainy season started in Late April.
Dear Mr. Graves,
I do not know what you are talking about!
Having lived, played and organized golf in Thailand for many years ,I have only heard of a rain out once in the last 3 years.
In fact, now the weather is beautiful on the Eastern Seaboard. This whole week Pattaya was cool and dry. I was there myself yesterday.
Moreover, Golfasian has organized over 900 rounds of golf in Pattaya last month and not a single person was rained out!
Phuket on the other hand has been wet all month, although this is also strange since October is usually the start of the cooler months.
Best Regards and Great Golifing,
Mark