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Cookieboy

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Everything posted by Cookieboy

  1. Cookieboy

    Cookieboy

  2. Alice Springs Golf Club in central Australia From the raised tee box Par 3 3rd hole 171 metres which is about 185 yards. This photo was taken in mid-winter
  3. Anyone going all the way to Pokhara should also head to the Yeti's course at the Fulbari Resort. It's a ramshackle 9-holer with wild overgrown fairways but has two holes like this you are not going to forget in a hurry. You walk out onto this tiny spit of land to tee off and it's 100 yards across and 100 yards straight down.
  4. It's not actually that high, it's the incessant climbing up and down rocks that tires you out. It's a fantastic place to play, cost me about $50.00 US including caddy, ball spotter and rental clubs. I would like to go back one day. This photo I may have posted before but it's across the fairway of one hole. The green in the background on the other side of the river is a separate hole. You can see the barbed wire. The green I was aiming at is to the left of the picture above that rise about 20 or 30 yards high. Now that's an elevated green!
  5. Not as rough and ready as The Amazon course perhaps but The Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara Nepal is certainly off the beaten track It's so physically gruelling it took me over four hours to play on an otherwise empty course with no waiting between shots. This one uses cows to cut the fairways, the very well tended greens have barbed wire around them to keep the cows off. The local rules include how to proceed when your ball lands on manure (preferred lie) This hole is called The Carry, it's not as far as it looks, maybe 130 yards. The red dot on the other side is a boy aged about eight who was my ball spotter. Without question my best golf experience ever.
  6. Imperial Lake View Hua Hin Thailand Par 3 3rd hole "Desert" Course. All the holes are named this is called Arizona 16th hole, Par 3 Empire Course Brunei Lastly Grand Prix Kanchanburi Thailand That's not a bunker, THIS is a bunker!
  7. I put he shoots in the 80's I generally shoot in the 95-105 range. My last round, I shot 103 I had a collection of pars and single bogeys The score racked up on just a few very bad holes. One hole I will relay in detail Long par 5. Drive middle of fairway second shot middle of fairway. 3rd shot I plonked into a greenside bunker 4th shot flew the green and went over a steep hill and ended hard against the OB fence. Flag nowhere in sight 5th shot went about two feet.from the fence 6th shot went over the hill, over the green and luckily missed the bunker but left a long chip 7th shot landed on the green but a long way from the hole. Two putts later I had a nine and was lucky to get out that cheaply Jack would never have made some of the mistakes I made He would still KNOW how to get out of the bunker without blasting it past the green He would never be so stupid as to chip the ball away from the fence NOT KNOWING where the flag was. Any decent bunker player would have parred that hole given my first three shots. Jack would have, there's four strokes he saved himself on one hole. Jack's golf intelligence would saved him
  8. Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara Nepal They call themselves "The Most Amazing Golf Course on Earth" and it actually lives up to the billing From memory this is from the tee box of the fourth hole. You have to hit it over that ravine and over those big rocks. No one that has ever played there has ever forgotten it.
  9. Royal Hua Hin in Hua Hin Thailand. The oldest course in Thailand This is the 14th hole, par 3 149 yards. It's a fantastic hole. You hit from one hill to another, the trees form a figure 8, it's like playing in an amphitheatre. Those trees have monkeys!
  10. From the tee box18th hole Cambodian Golf and Country Club in Phnom Pehn
  11. Best My tee shot ended 20 feet from the hole on a 400+ yard Par 4 which would have been stupendous except I was actually playing a neighbouring Par 3. I walked up to the fellas who were about to putt out on that hole apologising as I approached and I said I would chip it back to my fairway. One of them said, "Go for the hole, you have a clear shot" and they started laughing. The hole was certainly visible but to get to my green I had to chip it high enough to clear a fence, but low enough to go under a tree branch, then it had to clear part of a vacant lot then clear the other perimeter fence of that vacant lot (I had to cut the corner) Then it had to clear about twenty yards of fairway, including a bunker I took my shot it went under the tree but over the fences then hit the side of the green popped into the air where it stopped five feet from the hole. I said, "Gentlemen" and walked off to utter silence. Worst I had a very long birdie putt, it never looked like missing but it fell one or two rotations of the ball short. It was so close if I thumped my putter on the green it would have fallen in.Happy to walk away with a par I walked toward the hole and had a back handed swing at the ball with my putter and somehow the ball flew sideways about six inches. I looked at my partner who said simply, "Your next shot is for bogey" Not willing to make the same mistake twice I lined it up carefully and promptly missed.
  12. Lastly for Nepal This is what the course looks like down on the valley floor
  13. Yeah well said me! Nepal is "as safe as anywhere"! That is true if you ignore the Rhinos in the street! This clip shows exactly what the streetscapes of Nepal are like.
  14. No the green is on the same level as the camera but to the left of the picture in the middle of the frame, that bit of land jutting out, it's just in front of that building. It was only about 120/130 metres but I had two tries and gave up. For a player of my standard in the exhausted state I was in it was near impossible Most of the course is on the valley floor, on either side of the river. You cross the river several times. In that photo you can see greens and bunkers
  15. This is another photo of the same course, Himalayan Golf Course in Nepal from the tee box on the 16th hole, the aptly named "The Abyss" The green is actually behind the trees in front of that building that looks like a school
  16. Yeah When you're in Nepal you hold your breathe in more ways than one. The taxi drive from Kathmandu to Pokhara took six hours it was only about 130 miles but the roads were so winding we couldn't go any faster. The road was actually smooth and well paved The plane ride back (on Yeti Airlines no less!) took a brisk 30 minutes You'd be wise to avoid the monsoon season but otherwise Nepal is as safe as anywhere. I'd go back there, I'd loved to play there again That course is so demanding it took me about five hours to play with no one else in front of me. I saw only one other player all day
  17. I have a mile long list of bucket list courses but this is the only one I have crossed off so far The Himalayan Golf Course in Pokhara Nepal, playing there was simply astonishing, like walking into a hallucination. I took hundred of photos but none of them captured why it was so special
  18. The single hardest course I have ever played the Faldo designed Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap Cambodia. This is the 13th hole. There many bunkers
  19. Black Mountain Hua Hin Thailand
  20. Darwin Golf Club , Darwin Northern Territory Australia I want to play there just to get a polo shirt
  21. Thanks for your response The South is a place I would like to visit properly. I have been to Atlanta twice in mid-summer to see the Braves, I'm not sure I'd like to play golf in that weather. It doesn't mean it can't be done, it just means I have to time the trip carefully The same as Las Vegas. It would be literally impossible to fit in comfortably with a trip to Alaska that has only a short window where golf is possible. (the hottest time of the year elsewhere) The appeal of going to Alaska is I would like to see the Midnight Sun baseball game they play in Fairbanks. They also have a handful of courses including North Star which has this on it's website... North Star Golf Club may be the only golf course that includes an Animal Checklist on its scorecard. Our open terrain attracts a large variety of native Alaskan species. The red backed voles colonize the deep rough, attracting a host of small predators such as hawks, owls, eagles, and red fox. Sandhill cranes may watch you putt and trumpeter swans have been seen. It is rare to see a lynx. One was spotted in 2001 stalking ducks, in 2011 catching a snowshoe hare, and in November 2012 walking through the parking lot! Moose are often seen in the wetlands near the back 9, usually late in the day or early morning.
  22. Hi I signed up for this forum as I am interested in golf in North America It's an ambition of mine to play golf on every continent and have only five to go! I'll give myself pass on Antarctica though I pick my holiday destinations not solely for golf but for whatever else the place has to offer as well. Mission Hills in China for example has no interest for me. I'd like to play in Iceland, the UK and Spain for Europe. South Africa and Egypt for Africa, Argentina and Peru for South America and Alaska and Las Vegas for North America. I've actually been to the US half a dozen times but never played golf there. I played baseball all my life so I've been to most of the truly great baseball stadiums like the old Yankee Stadium (but not the new one) Fenway, Wrigley, Camden Yards. What's surprising to me is how many of the stadiums I've been to have already been torn down and I only started going there in 1990. The Kingdome, Three Rivers, Metrodome I've seen approximately 80 MLB games live but the most enjoyable games I've seen were minor league ones, So when I go back to the US I'll pick towns with Double AA ball clubs play golf in the day and go to the ball park at night. I found AAA was very close to Major League standard but lacked the electric atmosphere so the games seemed flat Double AA though, the players all threw bullets and hit the ball a mile but no routine play ever seemed routine, every play was an adventure and I really loved watching them. . Anyway I have played golf extensively in Thailand namely in Kanchanaburi, Hua Hin Ayutthaya and Bangkok and I have played every public course in Cambodia. There are eight courses in total but one is strictly private so I didn't play that. If anyone is interested in golf in either Thailand or Cambodia I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thailand is fairly well known as a golf destination but Cambodia is waiting to be discovered Thank you
  23. Long time lurker first post I signed up just to throw in a place you may never think of as a golf destination. Cambodia I know it's a long way from the USA There are three courses in the Siem Rep area, all top notch (with prices to match about $150 each for caddy, clubs, cart and green fees) The city itself is the best place I have ever been It's a city of 1,000,000 people and it's incredibly quiet, no one drives over 20 mph The place is dirt cheap, a 4 star hotel in the centre of town will cost you about $50 per night ( I ate that much in the free buffet breakfast!) The sights are astonishing. It is about seven miles from World Heritage Site Angkor Wat. That alone is worth the trip the place is astonishing. and you will never, ever forget it. I spent my mornings playing golf and the afternoons playing Tomb Raider, clambering over these thousand year old buildings. It was a very tiring but brilliant holiday You can get a driver for about $25.00 per day (gas included) who will drive you anywhere you want to go, anytime you want to go in a very modern car. So that's $75 per day for a room and taxi. Try getting that sort of value anywhere else. I also went to Phnom Pehn Cambodia, there are four courses to play there. With the exception of Garden City they are not in the same class as the ones in Siem Reap They are rougher around the edges and much cheaper. I didn't love PP as I did Siem Reap but I didn't regret going there. The tourist sites, such as The Killing Fields, are a lot more sobering. You won't forget going there either If anyone is interested I put more complete reviews of the golf in Cambodia on an Australian website similar to this one called iseekgolf This is Siem Reap http://forums.iseekgolf.com/topic/49917-siem-reap-cambodia/ This is Phnom Pehn http://forums.iseekgolf.com/topic/56049-phnom-penh-cambodia/?hl=phnom I doubt there are any direct fights from the USA to Cambodia but you can easily fly there via Hong Kong or Singapore or Bangkok US currency is accepted everywhere (take small notes! 1's and 5's), you get your change in the local riels (about 9000 to a dollar) If anyone is interested I can try to answer any questions. I have also played more than 40 courses in Thailand including Black Mountain in Hua Hin which had a tournament just last week.
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