Hi folks,

I'm going to have the time to start playing 3-4 times a week shortly, so plan to take out membership at a course round the Bkk area. At the moment I'm thinking of President - seems a reasonable deal : fees not too bad, 36 holes, within 45 mins of home, challenging course etc etc. Ideally I'm after some feedback from anyone who is a member or knows any members on what it's really like to be a member there - just looking for anything I should be aware of such as hidden charges, fee increases, restrictions on members playing, busloads of Korean tours etc etc. Please feel free to PM me if you don't want to post your comments in public.....

Also if anyone has any other membership recommendations around the Bkk area - I'd welcome any suggestions you can provide.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

A buddy of mine has a membership at President. He is out of the country at the moment so I haven't been out there for about 5 weeks now. From what he has told me, there is a yearly maintenance fee (I think). I have noticed over the past couple of years that President is quite empty a lot of the time. Yes, they do get tour groups of Koreans. At least with 36 holes they can usually move other groups around to avoid these. If they have a tournament there, they usually kick off at noon, usually on North & East courses.

With membership you do get a discount on food only in the restaurant.

From what I have observed so far, they have a preferred starting tee, if there are groups of tourists on the starting tee, the starter will usually move a member and his group over to another starting tee box that is open. If some of the other courses are closed for maintenance, the starter has moved us forward 4 or 5 holes to get ahead of the pack, and then when we finish the last hole, pick up the holes we jumped, which are usually empty then.