Hua Hin Golf Gossip

[cookmanchef]

Well I'm a member and overall I am delighted with the value, the whole package is excellent.

Nothing is perfect for sure though, today I was disappointed with the greens on A course as a ton of sand had been spread on each of them and as a result they were very slow and unpredictable, hopefully they will improve over the next week if we get some rain, will keep you informed.

Greens on B course were good, but naturally the areas wide of the trees were rock hard and very stony, is there a local rule to avoid you having to damage your clubs by playing from these areas?

[Majestic Creek]

The members at Majestic appear to be very happy with all the developments and improvements of the club, as we have a full entry list each week for our member's and guest's competition.

And this is the low season when the majority of the Scandanavian members have gone back to Europe to visit family and friends.

This week we have 14 three ball groups entered into the competition, and we had 50 players entered last week.

Still the majority of these are men, although the club has around 60 women members.

So we plan to run a monthly ladies day competition too, another idea to give our members a great service. This will be open to member's guests and visitors too.

[sateeb]

Just noticed on the SMG website that there is a Singha All Thailand/Asean PGA event at Royal HH GC.

18-21 Jul. 2013
Singha Huahin Open *
Royal Huahin Golf Course
฿2,000,000

[cookmanchef]

Anyone planning to come to Hua Hin for golf at the moment should be aware that the greens at Majestic are in quite poor condition and have been for the last few weeks. Despite all the rain the greenskeeper seems to think they need a few tons of sand every day, add to that the fact that the pins haven't been moved for a few weeks and you have something of a lottery.

Hope it's not another case of all focus being on the high season players and to hell with the low season!

[Majestic Creek]

Have to say that the greens were sanded today, but only 5 on the front nine. The pins have been moved twice this week alone, so don't know how many times you have played Majestic to state they haven't been moved for weeks !!!!! Totally wrong statement.
The greens are in excellent condition and the rain has improved the whole playing condition of Majestic and all the other Hua Hin courses.
We are happy that the course is in excellent shape and continues to get better every week, and the focus is on continual improvement in both high and low season.

[jingjoe]

heres my speil on springfield golf club...i bought a family lifetime membership a few months ago,that was before playing on the course or even visiting it,i also have never played on any other hua hin courses.The only reference i had was thru this forum and i felt the bargain price i paid was worth a punt.So the only comparisons i have are to courses i have played in australia.
My first impressions of the clubhouse is probably what i imagine an american country club to look like,large hotel style with fantastic resort style pool,a few restaurants/cafe bars,pretty impressive set up.I used the driving range and chip/putting greens the first few weeks,nice to be able to hit the ball off grass tees for a change rather than the commercial plastic grass tees at driving ranges in oz.I also found the staff to be very friendly,they drive you to the range in the carts and most of the ground staff you pass are smiling and happy as well.
Today was my first round ,i played A and C,B is under maintenance and closed for a month or so.
A course is a picturesque 9holes,challenging without been too difficult,i missed a few birdie chances trying to get used to the greens.I would compare it to a top members course in australia.
C course is a bit longer,not as shady as the A course,might look nice after some of the dams fill with water,reasonably hard because of the length,but if you stay straight its ok,probably a middle to top members course equivalent to australian courses.
Overall i enjoyed playing their and teeing off at 7am it wasn't too hot and had the course to myself.The fairways were nice and green and the ball sat well and played nicely off it.The greens are faster than they look,the ball ran true on the green with no bumps,so no excuses for bad putting.
I don't think it would be a championship course at home,but definitely a pga qualifying standard course in oz,and they do have the asian qualifiers here.
My caddie was very good,she even new after the first few holes when i was going to bump and run near the greens,handing me my 8iron instead of a wedge,she read the greens better than i did and even though my putting cost me alot of strokes,she saved me a few as well.
I know a lot of people complain about the price of the restaurant food and beers,but i like to have a beer and a quick bite after golf,and i think if you don't support the club,they will keep putting fees up to compensate and really, compared to the price at the clubs at home a couple hundred baht isn't too bad.All in all i'm glad i bought the membership and hopefully now will start playing 2 or three times a week.

wow after qualifying for a handicap,i now realize this is a harder course than i gave it credit for.I must of been hitting the ball straight as a die in that first round.Any stray balls off the fairway really plays havoc with your score.
Its a great challenging course and well worth a game,i entered 5 cards and not one one card under 90,and received a 14 handicap on the truhandicap website...they obviously rate it a difficult course as well

[cookmanchef]

Have been playing Majestic twice a week for months but we have cut down to once until greens improve, they have been sanded on the day we have played every single time, even the caddies are cringing. This isn't just my opinion, I asked 3 others and they shared my view.

I could list at least 10 greens where the pins haven't been moved for certainly the last two weeks, can't remember them all.

Hopefully when I play next week they will have improved, if not we'll probably skip it for a couple of weeks.

[JW]

If they hadnt been moved for 2 weeks the hole would be just about closed up.

[Majestic Creek]

I have checked each green this week, as I played with Saen Suk on wednesday and played in our weekly competition yesterday. Every green had a different position from the day before.
Example, the 17 had the flag on the top ledge on wednesday, then was cut in the middle of the green yesterday. So your statement about not moving pins is not correct.
The greens on A course are being sanded, as they are new greens and have only been open since February. It would have been ideal to leave them for another 6 months before we opened A course, but it was a balance between letting members have the benefit of playing the new course, or carrying on with C and B until they had fully settled.
The decision was taken to play A during the low season when the course traffic would be less, and use this opportunity to work on C course, which will be finished for the start of the high season, giving us 3 nines to work with.
Overall, it was the right decision as everybody who plays the new A course has said it is a great nine holes.
We will continually work to improve all the Majestic Creek golf resort, and make it one of Hua Hin's top courses.

[heartofmidlothian]

Golfers have to understand that necessary maintenance has to be done to golf courses. To keep greens healthy, they have to be cored at least twice a year, verticut regularly, scarified once a year and topdressed regularly. In an ideal world, if you have 3 x 9 holes, you can close 9 holes to do this necessary work, so the golfers don't have to deal with the bumpy greens. Majestic will have this luxury next low season. Very interesting that Black Mountain choose to do half a green at a time (for coring and scarifying). At least the golfers can then enjoy good greens for shorter putts. Tough job to keep golf courses good and healthy.

[hhfarang]

In the U.S. many golf courses had temporary greens which were usually off to the side or short of the real ones. They were a small patch of ground with closely mowed putting green type grass but level with the fairway. They would whip these into shape and use them for a couple of weeks on a few holes at a time while the real greens underwent maintenance. It still wasn't ideal but better than putting over freshly cored and sanded greens. Those places had average green fees of 30 to 35 U.S.D. With the rates charged here one would think that having two real greens per hole to alternate between would not be impossible.

[JW]

My course in UK did the same HHF, ours were pretty terrible but they used a 6 inch diameter cup to give us half a chance!

Golfers are often quite selfish people and forget about maintenance/management and profit (all of which golf courses must have), we all need to take a step back when we are pisd because we missed a 5 footer because the hole was old, or the green bumpy or our caddie gives us a correct line and we dont hit it!

We should thank our lucky stars everytime we get to go play, if anyone disagrees then you dont deserve to play the game and you should give your clubs to some young kid who will be thankful.

[cookmanchef]

I think anyone that has been playing the game any length of time knows and understands that maintenance is a necessary evil, and for a couple of weeks after they have been hollow-tined you expect that they will be regularly sanded and in generally poor condition. My gripe was with the fact that they are still being heavily sanded many weeks after the hollow-tining, not just A course but B also.

I'm not making a big issue of it, just warning people that if they are here for just a couple of weeks they might want to play somewhere that is currently in better condition. I will play again this week and if they are still the same I will go to KK for the next couple of weeks as I hear they are in great nick.

[heartofmidlothian]

I think the simple answer is that if you aren't happy with a course, then just go elsewhere. It is the customers right. I am quite sure there is a very good reason for the top dressing and they won't just be doing it to annoy golfers.
You very rarely see people posting comments on here about how good golf courses are, especially regarding the maintenance. Tends to be more moaning about bad conditions. It would be good if people posted here about good experiences and then hopefully others would head to that course. Would be a good promotion for all the hard work it takes to get a course looking good. I have heard that Kaeng Krachan is looking good - anyone played it recently? Any other courses that are looking really good just now?

[cookmanchef]

I have posted a couple of positive reports on Majestic previously, the overall package is great. The whole point of these forums is surely to give people information, I have been to courses and been hugely disappointed to discover poor greens when I got there, if someone is visiting for a couple of weeks only then I would recommend they currently go elsewhere.

There is another thread where people have said that KK is currently in great condition and their sports days are now Thursday and Friday with a charge of just THB 600 including caddy.