Pattaya Police Raid Poker Gambling Ring, Arrest 9 Foreign Players

[glanville63]

Two weeks ago, we made a booking for three groups at Plutaluang Golf Course. The booking time for the first group was 10.30am today. We had all arrived by 10am and couldn't believe the scene that greeted us. As we drove through the course towards the bag drop, we noticed that the fairways were littered with golfers and caddies and when we arrived at the club house there were dozens of people queing to check in. No golf carts are available, we were told and still they continued to take our money and send us on our merry way onto the over-crowded golf course. We should have know better and indeed a few of our party got back into their cars and left. We should have done the same but hope springs eternal from a golfer as most people will know. On every tee there were at least three groups either teeing off or waiting to tee off, groups on the fairways and groups on the greens. Every hole had at least twenty golfers playing on it or waiting to play it. It took us three hours to complete 9 holes and by that time we had decided enough was enough. Plutalung GC should have known better than to continue to take green fees knowing full well that the course couldn't cope with that number of people. Their coffers are full tonight with their ill gotten gains but there are a lot of people in Pattaya who will be far from happy with their day's golfing. Shame on you Plutaluang GC.

[richard_smith237]

And that is Par for the course... There are very few if any golf courses (I've not found one), who stick to their tee off times and care about the 'golfing experience'...

IMO: If I have a booking for a tee of at 10:30am, I expect to tee off at 10:30am. That said, if I am late I should get shafted, but I don't I simply join the que. So, whats the point of booking anyway I wonder.

Golf courses in Thailand are greedy.

That said, on a quiet day a golf course in Thailand is an excellent place to be, and IMO much better than a course in many other countries.

I find the golf courses around Pattaya (Particularly Pheonix) to treat their golfers simply as todays revenue and nothing more. i.e. Money today, forget about service and return custom.

If I turn up at a course and see a full car park, busy tee boxes or busses parked, I prefer turn around. But sometimes I have travelled too far and so take my chances, invariably I regret this decision and as a consequnce have stopped playing golf in and around Bangkok. I experiened double pricing in Hua Hin... my enjoyable golfing options are diminishing, but quite possiblly they are diminishing because I had become so spoilt over the past 10 years....

[Gone]

Why the "H" should they turn away customers? You blame it on them for letting you play when you could have just as easily walked away like your mates did and then come here complaining?

There is 36 courses around Pattaya you know.

Geez that movie theater should have never given us seats when they knew the only remaining seats were behind a couple that talked all the way through the movie. Shame on that movie theater.

[mogy]

Why the "H" should they turn away customers? You blame it on them for letting you play when you could have just as easily walked away like your mates did and then come here complaining?

There is 36 courses around Pattaya you know.

Geez that movie theater should have never given us seats when they knew the only remaining seats were behind a couple that talked all the way through the movie. Shame on that movie theater.

Disagree since on many courses it may not be apparent that a golf course is overcrowded at the time you pay. There's a general time limit between groups that most courses stick with and that is not adhered to on this course when they take the bookings. Since the navy course is generally a cheap course they're trying to make up for it in numbers.

Also your comment re 36 courses - Having to change plan and go to a different golf course after getting out to Plutaluang for a round takes time that some people don't have on their hands.

On a side note for anyone that's interested, I hadn't played Khow Kheow in many years and went back there last week and was very very impressed with the way the course is now. The B course is an excellent example of what a golf course should look like and I thought it was good value for money too.

[richard_smith237]

Why the "H" should they turn away customers? You blame it on them for letting you play when you could have just as easily walked away like your mates did and then come here complaining?

There is 36 courses around Pattaya you know.

Geez that movie theater should have never given us seats when they knew the only remaining seats were behind a couple that talked all the way through the movie. Shame on that movie theater.

Do you play golf in Thailand? Your cinema analogy is fundamentally flawed. Think of this way (below), how would you feel then ?

"Geez that movie theater should never have sold our reserved seats to someone else and then expect us to squeeze up two per seat in an overcrowded cinema. Shame on that movie theater".

Additionally - Walking away is rarely an option as it takes valuable time to travel to another course....

The only real option here, is with experience to note the courses which over-book and either expect a very long over crowded 6 hours of golf, or boycott those course....

The comments on this forum make for valuable information and if I Pattaya I would be very wary of playing this course.

When making a tee time booking I always ask if the course is busy... Then I ask for the availability of a number of different tee times to gauge how busy the course may be as the 'mai-pen-rai' attitude of the person taking the booking nearly always tells you a little porkie pie'...

[rmicheald]

Why are you surprised?? MOST of the businesses in Thailand have <deleted> customer service and care nothing about customers. "Oh, we don't have many customers - let's raise our prices"... Thais don't complain and pay for something even when it is <deleted>. I constantly ask my wife why she is willing to pay for a meal that she says doesn't tast good.

I have lived here 5 years and have only experienced one company - Bangkok Bank - that had good customer service.

[glanville63]

I wasn't making a sweeping statement that all golf courses in the Pattaya or Thailand treat their customers badly. Just drawing attention to the service we got that day at Plutaluang GC. I guess I'll never get a comment from the golf course in question because they probably don't look at ThaiVisa and can't read English. That's where the problems lie. There is no constructive feed back from either side. Things will never improve here until we are able to communicate with one another. That day is a long way off.

[m3dave]

my son was over at christmas so we played a game at plutoulang, we got a cart, hired clubs and we were told we had to have 2 caddies at 300 bht each, who stood on the back of the cart, at the end of the game i gave them 100bht tip each no thankyou but walked briskly to the guy in charge who came over to inform us it was customery to tip 200bht each, what for being taken on a pleasant drive in the country? think ill stick to playing at home whenever i visit, just as much choice and a lot more fun.

[gmac]

my son was over at christmas so we played a game at plutoulang, we got a cart, hired clubs and we were told we had to have 2 caddies at 300 bht each, who stood on the back of the cart, at the end of the game i gave them 100bht tip each no thankyou but walked briskly to the guy in charge who came over to inform us it was customery to tip 200bht each, what for being taken on a pleasant drive in the country? think ill stick to playing at home whenever i visit, just as much choice and a lot more fun.

The caddy fees and tips are something I find pretty galling as well. I play quite regularly at the cheapest course in the area as money is a bit tight and actually dislike having a caddy. I would far rather take my own trolley and drag it round myself and actually have the right club with me at the time I wish to play my shot and not 50 metres behind me or the other side of the green. At 100 baht a round (200 in high season) it's tremendous value but paying 4 times the green fee for an unwanted caddy irritates somewhat.

[Dorkers]

I played Plutaluang yday, Sat 21.1.12, Got there 10.00 teed off at 10.15. Playing in a two ball, we had a group of 6 Thai Navy guys in front of us. The round took 5 hours. Not great , but tolerable. The group of 6 didn't let us through - didn't have to - they had carts and as soon as someone had finished putting they went to the next hole to tee off. Plutaluang is owned by the Navy, they don't care about the average Joe. As long as the Navy guys and big wigs can play the course then Plutaluang is happy. I play a lot of golf there and around Pattaya and Thailand in general. To me the nightmare is being stuck behind a group of Koreans - slow as f# on the greens playing their gambling games. Had a caddy who told me they bet on who can sink the longest putt. Hence the delay for them on the greens. And their zero awareness of the group behind them - Korean golf culture perhaps?

Oh - I have a regular caddy at Plutaluang, yesterday she gave me oranges and pears for my Mrs at home and always has a smile her face, good company for the day. Rang her up on Friday night and she warned me that the course is very very busy at the moment because of Farangs and Koreans on holidays.

[Dorkers]

BTW - M3Dave I think you were given a bum steer about only tipping 100. You and your son would have spent upwards of 5000 for the day I imagine for golf, had a person 'work' for you for 4 - 5 hours and only give them 100tip. Yes, you have paid a caddy fee in your green fee - but the caddy doesn't get all of that - so the tip is important to supplement their income. Nature of the beast here to have to pay a caddy, but regardless of what they do - aside from losing a club, stealing from you or dropping your golf bag in a water hazard (have seen it happen!) - 200 baht is the unwritten minimum tip. They are not rich like you are so better just to consider it as a 'donation' for the caddy to help their family.

[12DrinkMore]

BTW - M3Dave I think you were given a bum steer about only tipping 100. You and your son would have spent upwards of 5000 for the day I imagine for golf, had a person 'work' for you for 4 - 5 hours and only give them 100tip. Yes, you have paid a caddy fee in your green fee - but the caddy doesn't get all of that - so the tip is important to supplement their income. Nature of the beast here to have to pay a caddy, but regardless of what they do - aside from losing a club, stealing from you or dropping your golf bag in a water hazard (have seen it happen!) - 200 baht is the unwritten minimum tip. They are not rich like you are so better just to consider it as a 'donation' for the caddy to help their family.

I gave up playing golf because of all the crap.

Much higher fees than the Thais pay, the utterly useless but forced upon me caddies, the massively long rounds and all the cheating. I am not interested in spending 5 to 6 hours on a golf course for a single round.

Nope, bugger it, golf in Thailand is not for me.