My first Pattaya golfing day with the Pattaya Sports Club & the Golf Links bar

I went to a lot of trouble to bring my golf clubs so playing is a must. Golfing here is mostly done thru bar social clubs. A membership is required but gets big reductions on green fees. I did a bit of googling and chose a bar that publishes their schedule online and includes a lot of good prices local courses. They don’t seem to play at the really upmarket very expensive courses. The bar organises the comp & transport and green fees. My first game was at Pattavia Century Golf club. A big role out there were 10 groups and I am in group 8. Waiting in the bar to be ready to go and get talking to others. They all seem to be open and chat is easy. Am on the bus with several Brits, and Irishman and another Aussie. They warn me about the greens on this course being very difficult. Arriving they guide me thru the steps to pro shop, green fees and change rooms and out to meet your caddy. Caddies are a part of the day and offer guidance on the course and especially putting. There is a fee but adds to the experience at a new course. My group has two Scots and a Brit and me. One of the Scots(Jimmy) is almost impossible to understand and he is my marker so I will get plenty of practice. The Brit (Bob) has the strangest swing I have ever seen. Not sure how he hits the ball. And the other Scot is another Jim and quite serious about his golf. Communication goes just fine significantly better than my golf for the first 4 holes. I couldn’t get the ball off the ground for a while (very embarrassing). Second hole hit an ok driver up over a small hill so couldn't see it land. My ball is always marked with a black texta stripe and when I got over the hump to my drive found a ball with the stripe & hit it. Oops turns out to be a playing partners ball we discovered when I got to the green. He isn’t happy and says he is changing his ball. Not a good start for me. My game is all over the place. Hitting it ok now but can’t get the distances right despite the caddy guidance and the putting is rubbish I just can’t get the speed right. Mind you the greens are all tilted at 30 degrees and faaaast. Then the penny dropped that the distances are in yards not metres and I started to get the ball in the air better so had a few opportunities to make an ok score. Starting to get a handle on things by the time the first nine ends altho score is rubbish. Sadly the damage is done. Ah well the game is for a handicap score only. Just as well but the second nine was much better with only one bad hole. Probably could have been a few shots better with experience of the course. And not having an official handicap I have to play min 3 games likely 5 before I get one so am not in the comp today. Bus trip back is uneventful and bar puts on a small meal of Thai curry & rice included in the fees. Interesting the winning scores were par (36 pts). So just illustrates the difficulty of the greens. I am not disappointed.