Apologies that no photo's are available
Myself and 2 farang friends set off from Khon San, west of Chumphae, at 0800hrs on Thursday 18th November 2010 to discover what some Northern cities had to offer in the way of golf courses.
Travelling west on the 12 road for around 3 hours we arrived at Phitsanulok and were very kindly directed to the Dong Phu Kert Military course located south of the main road.
The 18 hole Parkland Course itself is pretty flat and in good condition although i found the layout is a wee bit uninspiring.
The Green Fee was a very reasonable- 400 baht with an addtional a 200 baht Caddy Fee.
As we were teeing off around noon we had to wait around 10 minutes for caddies to appear (think all were already on the course). On the plus side we were pleasantly greeted at the 1st tee by a male staff member who mentioned that i looked awfully smart. (What a flatterer!)
On the minus side, one of the front 9, par 3 holes was under reconstruction so the caddies very kindly put a par on the card for us on that hole.
Our caddies, although not particularly skilled in the art of green reading were very friendly.
Gross score - 86
A cool beer at the clubhouse following the round was most welcome albeit we did notice a more popular venue for food/drink across from the car park on our exit.
We then went in search for a local hotel and managed to locate the 'La Paloma' a few blocks south of the River Nan.
Clean and comfortable good sized twin rooms were 800 baht for a walk-in, including breakfast.
A very pleasant evening was spent at a riverside bar/restaurant (sorry, can't recall the name, but fairly close to a bridge)
Day 2
Leaving Phitsanulok we went in search of the 'Waterland Golf Resort' which incidentally has it's own website.
Unfortunately the person who devised the website map giving directions to the course clearly had no concept of north/south/east/west as it took us over 2 hours to locate the resort which could have been no more than 50 kms from Phitsanulok. After a very frustrating period we were most grateful to be given directions by an officer of the law.
On arrival we noticed that the course was devoid of other golfers and caddies had to be phoned to come to the course before we could start.
700 baht including caddy fee. Cold drinks but no food available in the clubhouse.
This course is truly in beautiful surroundings but wow, the layout has a lot to be desired. The 1st tee was a 230 yard carry over water and we were ferryed across the lakes to play some of our next shots. The fairway grass around the course was so high it covered the golf ball, the tee boxes were small and quite honestly after 9 nine holes we had seen enough.
The caddies did their best to make things pleasant for us and apparently they only work around twice a month as customers are few and far between.
This course is in desperate need of a manager who has some positive ideas as it is possible to alter the layout at very little expense. It was also a shame to see that the resort has lots of buildings, accommodation, swimming pool which is deteriorating simply due to lack of customers.
My friends and I will certainly be giving this course a wide berth until improvements are made.
Following the 'golf' we travelled to Tak and booked into the 'Wiang Tak Riverside Hotel'. Highly recommended accommodation although as it was 'Loy Kathrong' weekend we were informed that only suites were available at 1500 baht each including breakfast. We were happy to pay the extra having seen the rooms.
We were also fortunate enough to see the very grand riverside parade at 7.30 pm and spent the remainer of the evening sipping a couple of cool beers at the hotel terrace (beware, 160 baht for a large leo)
More to follow