Golf Tourney Begins Tomorrow (or tonight for those in the US)

The past 3 days we've played golf, in preparation for the 1st Stage of Asian Tour Q-School. The golf course is a good test, but the greens are the biggest challenge. The greens are very grainy, which is something you have to consider for every putt or chip into a green. If it's down hill and down grain, it will play fast, whereas uphill and into the grain is extremely slow. Not very often is a downhill putt into the grain, but when that does happen it is somewhat of a guessing game as to which one is stronger than the other one.

My first round is WEdnesday morning, 8:10 local time, which is 7:10pm Tuesday night in Wisconsin. Results will be posted on the Asian Tour Website. I'll also post a little about the round on my website.

We are required to take caddies and they are all female. We've had fun trying to communicate with our caddies despite an obvious language barrier. I've picked up some Thai, but it's a tonal language so any mispronunciation of the word probably means something else entirely. The name of one caddies in our group is Saam and for the first 9 holes we thought it was Daam, Taam, Gaam, or Naam. Everytime we tried to repeat her name, we got it wrong and all of the caddies giggled at us. I find the caddies giggling at me most of the day. When in doubt, you can smile and that covers any embarrassment, shyness, or frustration they might have. Thailand is 'The Land of Smiles' and it's very true. If you're unsure or can't understand something, just smile and wait for them to repeat it slowly.

The caddies pick up every loose divot left of the golf course. They also pick up loose trash scattered around, like broken tees and empty water bottles. It's very hard work for the caddies. Their uniform is a sky blue jumpsuit from head to toe with a large brimmed hat. They all wear a towel underneath the hat, which is clipped together in the back and front. That leaves everything except their face covered and I guess it keeps them cool - which is a must with 90 degree temps and dew points in the 70s.

Our hotel is a 5 star resort with a great breakfast buffet included. Our actual room is the size of a normal american hotel room, but we've added an extra cot so it's a bit tight. Best thing is that the A/C works and the shower has 6 heads which shoot water at you head to toe. We're staying right on the ocean and a short walk down the beach is a great grill to have lunch and dinner. We've eaten there every night because it's only 50 Baht ($1.66) for chicken stir fry or shrimp fried rice.

When the sun sets the fishermen takes their boats out on the sea for the night and all you see are green lights on the horizon. They come back in the morning with what they've caught and get ready to go back out the next night. They've been out there every night, Monday through Sunday.

Over the weekend we rented motorbikes and did some sightseeing. We drove south, down the coast and into the town of Hua Hin. We stopped at a temple which is surrounded by monkeys. Further down the coast we stopped and enjoyed some $1 smoothies while playing cards. Then on Sunday we went into the market of Hua Hin and walked around the streets, while every bar and massage parlor tried to get us to come inside. There was a dvd store with bootleg copies of every movie in America. They even began playing the newest Bond movie 'Skyfall', which is still in theaters.

I'm still having trouble uploading pictures to blogger, but I can get them onto Twitter so look for my tweets to see pictures of J.J. Grill, Monkey Island, and fishing boats.

Neil