Thailand Golf Tour - Hatyai, 2018 Jan

Day 1 – Jan 2nd

It has been a while since our last trip to HatYai. So when it was suggested to make another trip, the response was almost immediate that 6 of us confirmed without much hesitation. At the last minute, Dennes jumped into the wagon as well. We left KL in Khoo’s Toyota Wellfire at 4am. Although there were 7 of us, each with our golf bag and hand luggage, we managed to squeezed everything into the Wellfire, literally making full use of every space available.

The magnificent 7, Dennes, Khoo, Lee, Alex, David, Liaw and Woon arrived at Darulaman Golf Club at about 10.30 and tee off with few packages of “nasi lemak “ and some local “kuih” as our lunch.  The food were picked up from a road side stall just before the turn off to the golf club.

Day 2 – Wednesday, Jan 3rd

Since our usual New Season Hotel was fully booked, probably due to the long holidays; thanks to David, he managed to book us all at xxxx hotel. Although the hotel is quite far from our usual must visit music happening bar, West Side; the room was clean and spacious for relatively attractive rates.

Since today is Wednesday, it is a Sports Day promotion at Southern Hills Golf Club. The golf package with green fees and caddy, only cost TBht 550. A very good deal offered by a golf course, which we always enjoyed playing. And “Shot of the Day” without doubts goes to Dennes, who hit a fantastic 2^nd shot with a 3 wood to Hole # 3. The ball flew across the stream and landed on the green on the other side of  the river about 4ft from the pin. It was an easy birdie and won the hole outright!

After dinner, we celebrated his achievement at West Side. The same old bar with the same old live band,  but played the best music in town. The group never failed to entertain. It was obvious that everyone in the bar were enjoying the music, many were seen tapping, singing along and clapping hands with the beat. As always, many of our favorite song requests were played that night too.To our surprise, Dennes became an instant international artist when he went on stage to sing Beyond’s top hit “Pang Yau (Friends)”. His score – 10/10! This guy can play and sing too!

  

As usual, big brother Dennes is always the “Cheers” leader urging everyone else to  “yam seng “ with him. But he never ever seems to show sign of getting drunk.  I am wondering if he has got a bottomless belly for liquor. That night, my innocent partner fell into his trap. She was really high but fortunately got knocked out only after checking into the room!

Day 3 – Thursday, Jan 4^th

As per our previous outing, we planned to play Koh Hong GC, which is located next to the army camp close to town. However, after our game at Southern Hills GC on the previous day, Dennes suggested we checked out the course conditions of Thongthai Banrai GC, which was initially a 9 hole courses but later added another 9 just few years ago. After a brief inspection and also encouraged by the very cheap golf package of TBhat ….., it was decided we should tried out this GC again, even though we were very disappointed with the new nine when we last played here. To our surprises, the new 9 has fully matured and the greens and fairways were in excellent conditions. Right away, we knew that we will comeback again in the future.

Day 4 – Friday, Jan 5^th

Today it was free and easy, but we had planned to check out of the hotel at about 9am so we could arrived at our favorite restaurant at Nibong Tebal in time for lunch.