Thai High

Australian tourists love the warm welcome they receive in Thailand and the cool new golf region in the country's north is just as inviting REPORTS BRENDAN JAMES.

There is a long-standing love affair that exists between
Australians and Thailand. It’s not hard to see why we love the place – we worship the sun and the sand and if there is the slightest chance of staying in a swish five-star resort at a four-star price, we’ll take it. Then, of course, there is the cheaper-than-cheap shopping to be done. We do love a bargain.

Admittedly you can experience these things in other south-east Asian countries so, for mine, it must be the warm welcome the Thai people extend to Australians. No matter where you go a smile and bow is accompanied by a genuine “sa-wat-dee” (hello). It is no wonder it has been said Thailand is the land of a million smiles.

The long par-3 6th hole is one of the toughest one-shotters to be found in Thailand.

Nor should it be any real surprise that, in 2007, more than 680,000 Aussies visited Thailand, which, per capita, made us Thailand’s No.1 tourism customer. A growing percentage of Australian visitors to Thailand are golfers, with many already discovering the best courses of resort areas such as Phuket, Pattaya and Hua Hin. Another region, in Thailand’s north, is relatively new to Australian golfers, but you can rest assured the area offers just as much sun as the south, great market shopping and fi ve-star luxuries. However, the only sand you are likely to find is alongside a fairway or green.

The unofficial capital of the north is the city of Chiang Mai, which was last year voted one of the top-fi ve destination cities in the world by the American Travel+Leisure Magazine. In contrast to the highenergy pulse of Bangkok, Chiang Mai moves at a much slower pace and is considered to be the cultural heart of Thailand.

Kantary Hills five-star serviced apartments are relatively new and as such are beautifully appointed and modern.

The original city of Chiang Mai, founded more than 700 years ago, is still defi ned by a square perimeter wall surrounded by a moat with vestiges of the fortifi ed wall and its four main gates offering access to the old town. Several Buddhist temples, inside and outside the walls, can be seen with some dating back to the city’s early days.

Today, Chiang Mai has grown to become the largest city in northern Thailand and is a hub of manufacturing, especially for silks, cottons, silver and teak wood carving. You might even say Chiang Mai is also a golfer’s city, when you consider its main waterway is the Ping River.

At 300 metres above sea level, Chiang Mai also offers a slightly cooler golfing experience in comparison to Thailand’s southern provinces. Chiang Mai’s cool season, which is best for golf, lasts from October to the end of February with most days ranging between 20° and 26°C. The hot months run from early March until the end of May.

Magnificent mountains surround Chiang Mai and also form the backdrop to some impressive newcomers on the Thai golfing scene. The best courses within a one-hour drive of the city have all opened for play in the past 18 years. The first of these, the Summit Green Valley Country Club, opened for play in 1990 and
has developed a reputation for being one of the region’s bestpresented courses.

The same can be said for the Peter Thomson-designed layout at
the Royal Chiang Mai Resort, where its standard of presentation
is equalled by the design. Thomson’s ‘links’ course here has many of the same features of his Australian designs – oversized greens, dramatic greenside mounding and no less than 94 bunkers scattered around the course. The one big difference to his courses here is the magnificent mountain backdrops that seem to frame every hole.

Speaking of mountains, the Gassan Khuntan Golf Club – about a one-hour drive south of Chiang Mai – is totally surrounded by steep ranges. Khuntan means ‘Devil Mountain’ and devilish is certainly an apt word to describe this par-72 layout.

To read the rest of this review, see the November 2008 issue of Golf Australia magazine.

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