any recommendations for playing golf with other like minded golfers in thailand--pattaya-chiang mai or anywhere over there

if you go to pattaya, you can join the pattaya sports club. i think the fee is around 2,000thb. this gets you discounts at all the courses around pattaya. if you play twice, chances are you've made back your 2,000thb via the discounts.

there are organized groups that go out regularly. some meet one day a week and play the same course every time. others meet two days and play a few different courses. the group i played with for a couple months was "bowling green". they played every tues, thurs, and sat. rotated through a bunch of courses but not sure how its going now. i did this back in 2006.

they will typically arrange transport and the cost will be shared among the golfers. i remember paying 200thb for r/t transport.

the one negative i found with this program was how long it took. you meet at 7:30 or so. and you usually don't get back until 5:30pm. there is no shotgun start so getting off the first tee can take some time. and if you are first off, you have to wait for all the others to finish. and the traffic coming back to pattaya in late afternoon can be tough.

i had some luck with one bar owner (expat). he like to play so we went out a few times and he drove. plus his thai wife called the course and got us a better rate than the pattaya sports club discounted rate.

There are at least 12 quality courses within an hour drive from Pattaya.

If you bring your own clubs and have friends to play with, and transportation to get you to the courses, join the Pattaya Sports Club to enjoy the discounts at most of the courses. BTW, your Pattaya Sports Club card also entitles you to a 10% discount at a long list of restaurants around town.

If you don't want to bring your own clubs, don't have anyone to play with or don't have transport...your best bet is to hook up with one of the many organized groups around town.

I recommend The Golf Club on Soi LK (right next door to Hell Club). John runs a great program. He has quality (Ping, Callaway, etc) clubs for rent and daily excursions that include transportation and greens fees. Cart and caddy are extra. Courses vary from day to day and John has arranged good discounts (usually more than the 10% you'd get with Pattaya Sports Club) for his groups at most all the courses.

Other groups that have daily excursions including transport include The Fun Club on soi 7 (near beach road), Pig & Whistle on soi 7, Whitehouse Condotel on soi 13 and another one on soi 8 (can't remember the name). Rental clubs are available from most.

Fees (greens fees and transport) will range from 1800-2400 baht not including rental clubs, cart, caddy or lunch. Many of the groups have betting pools too.

BTW, if you haven't golfed in Thailand, you will be pleased to know the caddies are all female ranging in age from 18-30 with some occasional beauties.

One final comment...all the groups besides The Golf Club (run by Americans) are run by Brits and most of the golfers are long time ex-pat Brits who seem to take a perverse pleasure in "America bashing". After a few rounds with those crusty old farts, you'll really appreciate the fun group of guys you'll meet at The Golf Club.

Touch base with the owners of the Whitehouse Condotel, they are located on Soi13 near 2nd road. Nice hotel and they can point you in the right direction for any of your golfing questions.

Nice thread, thanks.

You can set up golf trips at the Diana Inn. They also own their own driving range in Pattaya with free shuttle from hotel lobby.

Flyngo is right though, if your not use to Brits it can be sort of wierd since those guys are very direct , speak their mind, and don't have the same political correctness Americans normally exhibit.