Classroom Golf Tours Songkran Road Trip
Saturday, April 16, Prokeethra C.C. – Day 1
This was to be a more leisurely trip than normal, comprising of 6 days and 5 nights, in order to avoid the peak water throwing season in Pattaya. Originally, we were planning to fly with Air Asia out of Don Muang but nearing the date, Bangkok Airways reduced their flight cost by a third and the Air Asia flight was showing only one seat being available, so we flew from Suvarnabhumi in the early afternoon of the 15th.
The flight arrived on time but the air quality in Cambodia was poor with low haze cover, so not much could be seen during the flight. On the ground it was stifling hot but fortunately passport control and visa on arrival were quite quick and we were soon on our way. Traffic was busy and everywhere extremely dry and dusty, apparently they hadn’t had rain for five months.
Steve Mann (centre) with Brendan Cope and Nigel Lee.
The hotel was fine as were the rooms and after a couple of beers at the hotel bar, we headed off to Pub Street, not really aware as to why the town was so busy. Of course it’s their Kymer New Year celebrations as well, with loud music in many bars and live show stages in Pub Street and on the river. To top it all, they even had water throwing but much more gentle than Pattaya but the noise and the bustle and hustle sent most of us back for an early night!
We left for golf at 8.15 on Saturday, squeezing our way through the heavy market traffic which didn’t seem to care which side of the road it drove on, supposedly the right! Arriving at the Prokeethra Country Club course some 30 minutes later, we were greeting by our caddies, each one with a player’s name on them, a nice touch that I haven’t seen out here before.
We teed off as we liked, there were only 1 or 2 other groups here, true millionaire’s golf on a course that was in excellent condition. We chose the white tees at 6,200 yards to keep it sensible but there were only two real players who shone today; a very much under the weather Brendan Cope (35pts) and Steve Mann (34). Coming in a distant third was Tim Knight with 25 points while Don Walding dropped out after nine with heat exhaustion. The rest of us didn’t really get the distance either as temperatures soared to a feel-like 44 degrees.
After a bite to eat and couple of good shirt deals in the Pro-shop we headed back mid afternoon to the hotel for a rest, a few beers at the hotel and a quiet evening for most.
Sunday, April 17, Booyoung Country Club – Day 2
This Korean owned course opened about 7 years ago and was formally known as Siem Reap Lake Resort. It is closer to the town and a few more players were visible but for a Sunday, desperately quiet.
Classroom golfers on tour in Cambodia.
They didn’t do themselves any favours either as they were not as friendly as the Prokeethra staff and getting ice and cold water into the carts would have been nigh on impossible if Don hadn’t insisted that we had an additional 4 bottles each to add to the 2 warm ones that were already in the cart. Even hotter than Saturday, we tried to get permission to take the carts into the rough, which we’d managed to obtain at Prokeethra but after a lengthy discussion, it was all to no avail.
The course has changed little since we were last here in 2012 and as then we elected to play from the silver tees at 6,200 yards rather than step up to the whites at over 6,500. I think as it turned out, it was a very good decision as the course had been over watered in many places, particularly on the front nine with little or no roll, which would also explain why they were so reluctant to let the carts anywhere near the rough, let alone the fairways.
Don decided not to play today, having not fully recovered from the previous round, but he took a cart and kept us company round the course whilst brushing up on golf course lake construction, water management and irrigation.
I didn’t make it to the end and Tim was having a wobble on the back nine. Alfie also wilted but hats off to George Scott, playing the entire round, to notch up a creditable 28 points for joint third place on the day with Tim. Second was Nigel Lee with a very steady 32 points and the winner was Steve Mann with 36 (he messed up the last two holes) who agreed he was thankful of the cart on the back nine.
The Korean menu on offer at the clubhouse didn’t really excite any of us, so we returned to the hotel early for a well earned afternoon rest for all before heading off to a very much quieter Pub Street at about 7pm for food and drinks. Some of us ate at the Red Piano, very reasonably, made even more so by the complimentary draft Angkor beer.
After the first two rounds; the leader-board looked like this: Steve Mann (70), Brendan Cope (66), Tim Knight and Nigel Lee (both 53) and George Scott (50).
Tuesday, April 19, Angkor Golf Club – Day 3
There’s no doubt that Sunday’s round at Booyoung was one of the toughest day’s for golf that any of us had experienced before; playing in oppressive conditions, wet fairways (i.e. over-watered, meaning no roll) and cart path only, despite our pleading with them to allow otherwise! However, some very cold Angkor beer definitely helped us regain our strength for today’s final round at the Faldo course.
We were grateful that it was a little bit cooler this morning, with a slight breeze which thankfully got stronger throughout the day. There were a few cars in the car park as we were greeted by Dave Baron, the Course Director, at the entrance to the small well designed clubhouse dominated by its huge sail. Some nice stuff in the pro-shop but in my opinion, somewhat overpriced.
It was another quick round with no hold-ups, as there was no-one in front of us. The course was in good nick, Sir Nick and a delight to play. I think if we return, the Booyoung course will be dropped and we will either play this one or Prokeethra twice.
Steve Mann set a fast pace, being level par after six before bogeying the seventh and a wayward drive that found water on the eighth, leaving him going out in 40 gross for 19 points. He played some great bunker shots on the back nine, returning also in 40 for a total of 39 points to win the day by 8 shots from Nigel Lee.
Afterwards, we all settled up our balances for the tour in the clubhouse but I’m sorry to report the food was not up to the standard we have experienced here before; however the course got a big thumbs-up.
Overall, it was a clear win for Steve Mann with a total of 109 points from Brendan Cope on 91, Nigel Lee took third with 84 from George Scott and Tim Knight tied on 80. All in all, a good trip with a great group of guys.
