Classroom Golf Society
Many different stories have been circulating around about the “new look” Soidao Highland course so the only way to find out, is to go there yourself. For me, it was the first visit here for a very long time, back in the days when you could do your Cambodia visa run at Soidao and take advantage of a round of golf or two as well. Others had been here more recently but all were eager to see what had been done.
The drive here was still around the three hour mark as some stretches of the 36 and 3 are not in very good nick and add in the customary mad drivers and intermittent heavy rain, and it soon became clear we weren’t going to break any records getting to the course. There’s still a bit of roadwork to do on this stratch but maybe by the end of the year it will be substantially complete.
Quite remarkably, the rain stopped just before we arrived and after the (arguably longer than Greenwood approach road), we arrived at a dry and cool Soidao.
Check-in was easy and efficient, as was the parking (right outside the front door); beer in hand I had a wander round. Most noticeable was the amazing driving range, from the clubhouse like one huge signature hole with 8 individual greens, each with their own bunkers together with a plan showing the distances to the centre of each one from 5 different tee boxes.
The rooms are excellent, having been completely refurbished and lifting their class into the upper end of the 3 star bracket, huge double beds, separate shower & bath and working WiFi in all rooms. The dining area is over in the refurbished clubhouse, past the swimming pool area which still has work going on and will probably take another couple months or so until finished.
After an excellent breakfast the following day we teed off at 10.30am to give our Kiwi group time to drive up from Pattaya. Our luck dodging the rain ran out at about the third hole when it started to rain quite heavily and we decided to wait it out at the butterfly drink stop for about 30 minutes; why the butterfly drink stop? There’s so many of them and many different varieties as well, fascinating.
For the remainder of the round it drizzled, a little more than that at times but not enough to disrupt the golf or make it uncomfortable to play.
There’s improvement work going on all over the course, including new drink stops and refurbishment of the old ones, fairways being relayed (so sometimes you land on GUR) but easy enough to take relief), extensive bunkering particularly up the left hand side of the 13th; the new index 1 is the 14th with a smallish green, well protected by water and new turf being laid and many new trees planted on the right hand side between the 13th & 14th holes. The 16th had a large area of GUR in the landing area for most (not our group) but again, plenty of room to take the drop.
All in all, the course is very playable and can only improve, particularly if somebody stops the caddies driving unnecessarily down the fairways in wet conditions. We played preferred lies on the fairway and round the greens which proved the right thing to do.
Apart from some of the Kiwis, the scoring was very average: John Low won the day with 37pts, ahead of Dion Lane (33) with Jim Elphick, who had a great back nine playing off the silvers, despite wiping the 18th, and Neil Smith (another Kiwi) in joint third place on 30pts.
This will become a much improved resort and golf course over the next few months, as the new green fees and room rates already reflect, there may be some who might prefer the way it was before but I think generally everyone will like what they see and the extra costs well worthwhile.
Hoping to leave before 2pm on Saturday afternoon, we teed off at 8.30, unfortunately in quite heavy rain, however this eased after a few holes and eventually stopped. The greens remained good throughout but the course was by now very wet, with casual water in many places.
The new scorecard has not yet been printed and is currently a sheet of A4 paper with the layout and distances for the driving range on the back but provided you can keep it dry, it does the job.
Once again the scores were low but quite understandably in the conditions with little or no roll and from the whites reasonably long at 6,363 yards; yellows are 5,911 and browns 6,683. The top score was 38pts scored by Carlos (another of the Kiwi group), a long way in front of John Low (30) in second and Dion Lane (25), who beat Eddy Beilby on count back.
The overall two day winner was John Low on 67, with Carlos (64) second, Dion (58) third and finally in fourth, flying the flag for Pattaya, was Jim Elphick with 56.
Arriving back at the Classroom Sports Bar in Soi 13/4 in time to watch most of the Australia v England rugby, we enjoyed some sandwiches as well as an excellent beef stew, courtesy of the Classroom and completed the presentation; followed by the NRL game between the Sharks and Warriors.
Our next tour is to Hua Hin on 21st August but before that we have a competition on Tuesday 12th July at Burapha (9.30 tee-time) to celebrate Peter’s Birthday and to mark the opening of the Classroom Sports Bar. Everybody is welcome; sign up at the Classroom or contact me (Jack) on 081 578 1956.
