The enthusiastic golfer on his first trip to golf in Pattaya boards a direct flight to Bangkok and then hops on to a van that takes just an hour and a half drive to get him to Pattaya. As the van makes its way through the town, the enthusiastic golfer is pointed out by the veterans in the group about the places to go to. That can only fuel his enthusiasm and eagerness, which means, nothing more than a 10-second check-in will do and the terse briefing on the house rules, the location of the breakfast and timings and other sundries, seem like an enormous waste of time. Dropping his golf bag at the bell desk is the only meaningful activity to him in the whole check-in piece, before he makes his way to his corner, having ensured he has got every detail right of where and when to meet for a cold one. And it is almost as though he did not move from the check-in area, because it seems like the very next instant when he is seen at a money exchange counter right next to the hotel. His pockets full of paper with the Thai King on them, he looks a transformed animal from a couple of weeks ago at his day job. After all, it’s the glorious start of the first of many unregrettable even if unrememberable Pattaya Golf Holidays.
The first cold one is just to warm things up a little before getting on to the many negotiations to follow. To business first, as the group leader, not for the first time, takes the rest of the group through the itinerary with special emphasis on which golf courses in Pattaya, they will be playing and in what order, only to be interrupted by the enthusiastic golfer a couple of times. Then to more serious business on who is playing with who the following day and the handicaps. The arguments begin, quickly replaced by the first negotiations of the evening. It’s as classic a start as you can get in any of the Pattaya golf tours. The other negotiations are for more of the mundane things Pattaya is known for, nothing that will interest the enthusiastic golfer, or so he says.
Having selectively unheard the details pertaining to the breakfast area and timings in the previous day’s check in the briefing, the enthusiastic golfer is scampering around to find the breakfast venue, all dolled up in his golfing finery, never seen on him at his home course. And why not, he is only an hour and a half away from teeing up at the fabulous Jack Nicklaus designed Laem Chabang course, one of the best for golf in Pattaya and he is quite certain that it is going to be the best round of his life, so what if he slept only 3 hours. The next day at the Siam Country Club, Old Course – where limited tee times was the main reason he had to commit to this trip way in advance, is the real deal – there’s nothing like playing your best golf at the most exclusive of the golf courses in Pattaya. The best outfit is saved for that. Not that it wouldn’t look good at the other 2 sister courses of the Siam Country Club – The Plantation Course and the Waterside Course, which always find their way into the top-end Pattaya golf packages. All through the trip, the enthusiasm of the enthusiastic golfer rarely diminishes. He may have been spending time on the more mundane things in Pattaya along with the veterans in the group, but that can have no effect on the excitement for playing golf in Pattaya with his buddies. He has already found out that there’s one new course they can play, Chee Chan which has recently opened to fabulous reviews. Alas, they do not have any more time left on this trip, so, they must include it in all their future Pattaya Golf Holidays, the next one of which has to be sooner than later. The planning has already started.
