Black Mountain Golf Course Opens on April 20

Post by **seasides** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:17 pm

on april 20st the sparkling new black mountain golf course opens its greens to the public.

only a 10 minutes's drive from hua hin.

they say they wanna be the club for the rich and bigshots. no, they dont want to go mainstream.

meaning their initial bargain offer for a round of golf will be 2000 baht. plus caddie @ 250 baht and so on.

the normal fee will be 4000 baht per round.

will they have a chance?

one must say it is a beautifully located golf club with all the potential. but more expensive than overseas?

and still only a dirt road to the club house ...

lets wait and see, but my take is they gonna have to go mainstream.

Post by **PeteC** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:37 pm

Do they have a good source of water to keep all that green, 'green'? Many a course on this side of the gulf which are in slightly better condition than a desert, during this dry season. You would think they would all drill wells and put in a pump/sprinkler system but apparently they don't. I keep seeing water trucks driving around the courses spraying everything which doesn't do much good. Pete

Post by **seasides** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:44 pm

they built three huge reservoirs in the back of the mountain. must have cost them a fortune.

during the last rainy season they already stored excess water from flooded areas. dont tell me how they got the water there, but the owner told me they used the water that otherwise would have been emptied into the sea.

the greens are very juicy and very green, so water is not a problem for them obviously.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:14 pm

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but when people are suffering from drought & getting water cut off for days in a row, it seems very sad that reservoirs are being built (at the company's costs, I understand that) to keep the grass at a high end golf club green.

Post by **seasides** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 4:18 pm

DawnHHDRC wrote:I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but when people are suffering from drought & getting water cut off for days in a row, it seems very sad that reservoirs are being built (at the company's costs, I understand that) to keep the grass at a high end golf club green.

dont get me wrong, i'm not a golfer at all, just happend to be around there.

but blame the thai authorities. if a private company is able to collect excessive rain water and make use of it and the thai authorities are not, well, then better privatise the government.

JW · Post by JW » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:16 pm

The water is there, they just havent got the money to ecavate the wells etc. The golf course should be beautiful, the greens are great already.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:09 pm

seasides wrote:
DawnHHDRC wrote:I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a party pooper, but when people are suffering from drought & getting water cut off for days in a row, it seems very sad that reservoirs are being built (at the company's costs, I understand that) to keep the grass at a high end golf club green.
dont get me wrong, i'm not a golfer at all, just happend to be around there.

but blame the thai authorities. if a private company is able to collect excessive rain water and make use of it and the thai authorities are not, well, then better privatise the government.

I was blaming the authorities. Sorry, wasn't that clear? The point you made (apart from privatising the govt, of course) was the point I was trying to make. Apologies for not being clearer.

ozuncle · Post by **ozuncle** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:18 pm

Dawn,
I can understand your concerns about drought , global warming etc, however in this case it was stated that the company used their own funds to build dams to collect rain water. If they are not drilling bores to use underground water I cant see any enviromental problems.
I presume they are planting trees and employing people to care for the grounds so how can you complain?
If they were using govt water supply at reduced rates I would agree with you.
I say good on them if they used water that would previously have run off into the sea.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:43 pm

ozuncle wrote:Dawn,
I can understand your concerns about drought , global warming etc, however in this case it was stated that the company used their own funds to build dams to collect rain water. If they are not drilling bores to use underground water I cant see any enviromental problems.
I presume they are planting trees and employing people to care for the grounds so how can you complain?
If they were using govt water supply at reduced rates I would agree with you.
I say good on them if they used water that would previously have run off into the sea.

I must be writing in Swahili today; I thought I'd clarified what I meant in the post above yours.

I find it sad that a golf course can manage to do this for grass & the local authorities (for whatever reason, financial or otherwise) cannot do it for people.

That was my whole point. Didn't mean it to be such a big deal...

ozuncle · Post by **ozuncle** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:00 pm

Dawn,
Please dont be shocked.
Golf is a big deal!
We like our greens green.
I havn't had my water cut off YET!

Post by **The understudy** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:05 pm

I can understiand you clearly Mrs. Dawn

I think it's very sad too that the Authorites only care about themselves and the powers they have. But No Nothing is done for the people who elected these people to Power.

Drilling a well for the People.isn't that hard for the Authorities to do but what clearly lacks is the Will of doing something for the people!

Your's the understudy!!!

Post by **PeteC** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:19 pm

The understudy wrote:I can understiand you clearly Mrs. Dawn

I think it's very sad too that the Authorites only care about themselves and the powers they have. But No Nothing is done for the people who elected these people to Power.

Drilling a well for the People.isn't that hard for the Authorities to do but what clearly lacks is the Will of doing something for the people!

Your's the understudy!!!

Short story. About 6 months ago had the baby girl at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital for a normal vaccine/check-up run. The Pattaya Mayor happened to be there at the same time for something medical. After services are performed, everyone goes to the cashier, hands in their slip and waits to be called to pay up after they check/input all into their computer system.

Perhaps 20-30 people/couples were sitting there for at least 15 minutes and no one was being called up to the counter to pay.

All of a sudden, the Mayor appears with this escort of doctors, nurses and administrators, 30 staff wai, smile and say nice things to him, he goes to the cashier counter alone, gets out a credit card (believe it or not...no cash?

) and pays his bill.

I'm standing about 3 feet away with my daughter in my arms and said openly and frankly to him " Do you see all these people behind you who have been waiting, apparently for your arrival..."? He gave me a very dirty look and walked away.

He's out of office in a few months, secure in the fact that he is now rich beyond his dreams from the contracts he has given out to his friends over the past 3 years, several of which were water pipe systems which all leak!!??

Screw them all UST, you being Thai or not. All we see are the bad administrators, are there any good ones. Pete

Post by **PJG** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:24 pm

I may be wrong but I was lead to believe that the Golf courses are not permitted to use bore hole water. Most have large lakes/reservoirs but even these need a tremendous amount of water and go dry by the end of the dry season.

On the point of water for the people, Artesian wells are not really a viable long term option. More reservoir capacity is definitly needed for Hua Hin but whether the Govt. has the will to do so is another subject.