I like golf. Having picked it up in Junior High, and having the body type for it (I'm white, therefore I golf), oops, I mean; tall, lanky, long arms, I have a naturally decent swing. This is the opposite of my basketball game, which is horrible. Anyway, this isn't about basketball.
Golf in Thailand is great. It's culturally acceptable to play, the Thais love golf (Tiger is half-Thai), and the grass grows really well here. The Thais also don't let something like the sun get in the way of having enough light to be able to see the ball. Quite a few golf courses in Bangkok are lit at night, so you can get in 18 after work.
My friend Bhishma introduced me to Summit Windmill, which is in Bang-Na Trat, 20 km East of my house (a 200 baht ($6 USD) taxi ride). The course is well maintained (although the greens are not to my liking), and it's a pretty challenging course (143 slope, I think).
Usually I can get in 9 holes in the light, and it starts to get dark at the turn. The course "marshalls" are Thai, so they don't really monitor the flow well, and the back 9 usually gets backed up.
Caddies: From what i've been told, the caddies (all Thai women) are available for a "19th hole", but in my experience, it's very easy to avoid this altogether. they are nice enough and they know the greens very well, even though they don't actually play golf! i find that a lot of "businessmen" from Korea or Japan are more interested in flirting with the caddies than playing golf. this is likely why these countries tend not to have many players on the PGA, and probably why the "19th hole" discussion comes up quite a bit.
at any rate, Night Golf is fun, and playing at night, you avoid the blazing heat of the day, even though it's still well above 90F at night, and the mosquitos are an issues.
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