Compulsory Caddies...

[Marvo]

Compulsory caddies...

Brits living and playing golf in LOS are now paying and tipping a lot more (£ speaking) with the Baht at 50 to the pound! 250 + 250 tip = £10 a round minimum caddy fee now.

Back in the UK I never used a caddy, nor were there any available at my club. I prefer to play that way but it seems that it is not an option in Thailand.

I joined a club here in LOS to avoid green fees and get the cost down to financially enable me realise my dream to play 4 or 5 times a week, but now that means spending £2,500 (including tip) a year on a caddy alone! This is freaking absurd, and is one hel_l of a Thai salary for a 20-25hr week. Also on a side note, I'm having trouble justifying to myself AND my working girlfriend, paying twice her annual salary to a caddy.

I just would like to be able to choose to carry MY own bag around MY club, like I do around any of my home courses in UK. I can go along with the whole compulsory caddy thing when visiting groups don't know the course or it gives locals some income but doesn't overly influence the affordability of a round of golf (eg for the green-fee paying tourists). The tourists coming in with wallets loaded up with 1 or two weeks of spending cash aren't going to be bothered about the caddy expense and, I would imagine, enjoy the experience of having a caddy for a few holiday rounds.

A few of us residents though (especially members of our clubs), I'm sure, would at least like the option of being able to go out without a caddy if the mood (or finances) take us.

I'd like to hear other golfer's ideas on this compulsory caddies business (apart from those miseries who, have before, told me not to play a game that I can't afford ).

Edited December 20, 2008 by Marvo

[Checker]

I TOTALLY agree with you Marvo, however it ain't gonna change . . . so we just have to accept it.

[CelticBhoy]

I am with you on this. I am most reluctant to hand over a 'tip' to

someone who doesn't deserve one and - let's be honest - most

of the caddies are pretty useless.

I am a lazy bugger, so having someone carry my bag suits me,

but I can pull my own trolley with ease. I would much prefer the

'caddy' was a thing of the past.

[Woofer]

I agree with you. I don't know who started this tip the caddy 200 baht but it seem excessive, when you pay caddy fees as well. I am Australian, my other two golfing buddies are from Iceland and the UK. With all our currencies falling it is getting very expensive to play golf here, far more than our own countries. We have cut our 3 times a week golf to once a week. What is worse given all the world's financial problems all the golf courses in Pattaya have put their fees up.

[percy2]

my working girlfriend

I think you might not want to show her this thread. Unless she is a "working girl" and proud of it! Which I have no problem with.

On the flip side I won't play golf any where where I cannot have a caddy.

Cheers

[SaigonDaze]

It's 200B for a caddie to schlep your clubs around the course, find your ball in the Cobra infested weeds and read your putts. Get over it.

[JohanBKK]

If you don't want tip so don't tip... or tip just 50 baht or 30 baht. Caddie is a easy job, if they don't have customers everyday is because have too many caddies in each golf. Why too many ? Because they get a good and easy salary.

[Marvo]

my working girlfriend

I think you might not want to show her this thread. Unless she is a "working girl" and proud of it! Which I have no problem with

Maybe I should have worded that my "respectably employed" girlfriend to keep this thread honest.

On the flip side I won't play golf any where where I cannot have a caddy.

I play golf to get excercise, not to be pampered and mollycoddled. Pulling my own clubs around is all part of the "workout". I can't justify 4 hours on the golf course AND THEN 2 hours in the gym!

It's 200B for a caddie to schlep your clubs around the course, find your ball in the Cobra infested weeds and read your putts.

Correction: 500 baht for a caddy to pull a cart and "guess" the line of my putts. OK, if she gets bitten by a cobra looking for my ball I'll either suck out the poison for her or pay the hospital bill, depending .

Get over it.

I just want to pull my own freakin' clubs around!

[percy2]

Pull your own club and be happy.

Cheers

[JohanBKK]

You can get a caddie and carry your clubs, i think is not a problem... if the only problem is "gym".

If the problem is money... then don't tip and ask your caddie to just follow you.

[chuckd]

I can solve everybody's problem with tipping.

Since we all agree that caddies are a requirement of the local courses, it would seem prudent to me to merely hand the caddy ticket to the caddy after you have registered and simply dismiss her for the day. Refuse to have her accompany you on the round.

Then Johan won't even have to spend that horrible 30 baht tip at the end of the round.

What a bunch of cry babies!

[JohanBKK]

Maybe they are there for solve problem's or something too... just ask her to follow you and don't do anything more.

[tgeezer]

I play the army course at Ram-Indra and half the players in a group don't have to have a caddy, so you are not the only golfers who don't want to spend on one. In our group of six the two retired army personnel drag, as a farang I have to have a caddy of course, and the others also take caddies. The caddy fee is 210. and I usually give 200 tip, if I win any money I split it with the caddy today he got 60. I am only here for five months but even at the old exchange rate it cost as much here for two rounds a week as it does as a member for as many as I want in UK. Thais are surprised at this but then we pay twice what they pay here. I would prefer to carry but golf in Thailand is a game for the reletively wealthy in which group we belong and if the rich man is to remain in his castle and the poor man at his gate this is the way it must stay. There are 800 caddies at TB they couldn't be put out of work. You definitely have the option of not tipping, noone I know has the courage to do that and I wonder what would happen if you did, would you be blackballed or would you get the worst caddy next time, or would there be violence?

Oh I forgot the latest wheeze: compulsory caddy cars and caddy to drive it, Siam Country Club, what a shame I used to like it there.