I played 3 golf courses out of the 12 in Hua-Hin.
I started with the course that was recommended to me, Black Mountain.
It is the most popular course, especially since it was voted the best golf course in Asia by Golf Digest magazine.
Yes, not just the best golf course in Thailand, but in Asia.
My opinion: It’s a beautiful golf course, with a very nice club-house, a nice restaurant, a huge and very chic pro-shop, an impeccably maintained course, an army of very elegant caddies in their yellow outfits.
In addition, the golf course is located in a very beautiful mountainous environment, and is surrounded by splendid villas, with a superb view, swimming pool, etc…
So, why did I miss it?
– I like difficult golf courses. Black Mountain is not.
- Hardly any water in play
- No side hazards
- Very wide fairways surrounded by thin rough, so it’s almost impossible to lose a ball or get into trouble
- Greens that are certainly perfect but relatively flat, without much technical difficulty once the speed is measured.
– The caddy I was assigned (you don’t have a choice, a caddy is mandatory) knew the course, she was very helpful, but she never played golf (she told me). Finally, she knew by heart the indications to give, on the trajectories in particular, but was wrong most of the time on the putt lines.
– I found the note rather salty
- Greenfee: 1950 baths, or 53 euros
- Manual trolley (managed by the youngest daughter): 350 baths, or 10 euros
- Bag rental: 1500 baths, i.e. 40 euros! ouch, that really hurts, even if it’s nice new material
- A box of balls : 795 baths, 22 euros
- Cadet: 300 baths, or 8 euros
Total: 4100 baths just to play (plus the balls), that’s 111 euros. That’s probably about, if not more than I would have paid in France or Spain for a greenfee, bag and hand cart.
The problem is that knowing the labour costs in Thailand where wages are very low, I was expecting a much cheaper overall rate. The same scenario is going to be repeated with a few nuances in the second golf, the one of Banyan. But I will discover a few days later that it is still possible to play golf with a small budget. I’ll come back to that later in this article.
Finally, a very nice golf course, Black Mountain, which leaves me a bit disappointed. It’s not the one I’ll come back to play in priority, if I go back to Hua-Hin.
Banyan Golf Club
Banyan looks a bit like Black Mountain. It is also a golf course located in the small mountains of the interior, very close to the beach and to Hua-Hin, but count on a 15 to 20 minutes taxi ride from the city; in Thailand, the very cheap taxi is the best way to access the golf courses from the beach. The round trip by taxi cost me for example for Banyan about 15 euros.
The very modern clubhouse is a bit confusing. Objectively quite ugly from the outside, it is quite nice inside, especially the changing rooms. Compared to the changing rooms at the Saint-Cyprien golf course where I was a member for 7 years, it’s night and day. Here, there is space and services, and it is beautiful.
The building, quite ugly as I said, completely hides the golf course when you arrive at the car park.
A small desk welcomes us and directs us either to the small but well-stocked pro-shop or to the caddies, who are wisely waiting their turn. Once the equipment has been requested and the greenfee paid, of course nothing is taken care of, the youngest is waiting with the cart (I took one here because it was raining at the beginning) and the bag, again very nice equipment. This time, I remembered to ask for stiff, which I had forgotten at Black Mountain. It had played tricks on me, I had difficulty adapting to clubs that were too soft for me.
The golf course is beautifully maintained, the caddies always elegant, the fairways perfect and the greens even more so.
I much preferred Banyan to Black Mountain for two reasons:
– The course is more challenging. Even though my caddie told me that the new director of golf had cut out a lot of rough, the course is still more technical. There is more water in play, tricky areas that are best avoided, the greens have more varied and interesting slopes.
– My caddy, Dada, is a golf player. She plays quite well apparently, knows the course perfectly. She also proved to be a very pleasant course partner. Always laughing, including laughing at me when I missed a ball, she gave me good advice on club choices and putting lines. She has a good sense of humour and a very good level of English, which was not the case with my younger sister at Black Mountain.
However, I did not appreciate the continuous presence of stray dogs on the course, almost on every green.
The fee is about the same as at Black Mountain. The course with greenfee, bag rental, cart and caddy costs 4300 baths, about 116 euros.
Again, this is very expensive.
Note that I did not ask for the annual membership fee for these courses, but I guess the price is related.
Korea Golf Club
A change of atmosphere with this last course in every respect. It starts with a long, completely broken access road, which is moderately amusing to the taxi drivers. The large and potentially beautiful (it must have been) building that then appears seems almost abandoned. Nothing is maintained and like the two previous golf courses. Here there is equipment in more or less good condition lying around. It’s really messy.
This is also a course in a hilly world, surrounded by a very thick forest populated by monkeys and countless peacocks.
The course clearly suffers from a lack of maintenance. The fairways and tee boxes are very rustic. Surprisingly, the greens are in pretty good condition. Note that there are no real bunkers on the whole of Korea Golf. There are the shapes of bunkers but not a single grain of sand in them.
Everything looks old and poorly or not at all maintained. Even the buffet meal I had before playing was very plain, which is rare in Thailand.
On the other hand, I retain two positive aspects of this course.
– the price (see below)
– The course seemed to me much more interesting to play than the 2 previous very nice courses.
The first 9 holes, better maintained, near the club house, are not very difficult but the length of some par 3 or 4, and the slopes and overhangs bring a certain interest. It seems that most members only play these 9 holes; the youngest was very surprised, and a little angry, that I asked her after the 9th to go to the 10th hole.
I soon found out why.
Holes 10 to 18 are really sporting. It’s a long way from the clubhouse to a pretty steep environment, with holes that are very complicated to play with water in play in various places, ravines to cross, impressive lengths, big slopes, narrower fairways. I really enjoyed this game … and lost several balls 🙁
The caddy was a bit exhausted from pulling the cart up these slopes. On the way, we enjoy some pretty nice views of the sea.
On the other hand, this part of the course is almost abandoned.
It’s a real shame. With some investment and development, I think this course would be exceptional.
Yes, but the price: I played this round for the sum of 1100 baths, including greenfee, bag of equipment (admittedly older than in the other two golf courses, but complete), hand cart, caddy and meal. That’s 30 euros. Again, I imagine the annual membership fee must be in proportion. If I were to live in Hua-Hin, I would definitely take a membership at this type of course. Because I don’t think that the low cost of living in Thailand is enough to compensate the budget to play in the 2 other clubs.
Finally, a positive view of golf in Hua-Hin. I would need time to discover the other courses, but there seems to be something for all tastes, and all budgets.
