"Last day in paradise"

It rained today for a while. I guess the sky was crying that I had to leave. I know I came close.
All day, I sucked in the wonderful atmosphere and tried not to be too sad to leave this place tomorrow.

pool at Twinpalms

Mai Tai Chili @ happy hour in the Beach Club

Last sunset for me in Phuket

Red Mountain: I am back

This morning, unbelievably, I had the course to myself. The only other players scheduled were to arrive at 10 am and I would not see them until later at lunch on the terrace. So it was the beautiful course, the maintenance guys keeping it in shape, the lizards, the missed birdie chances and the humidity all just there for me :)

On my approach on hole 1, using my 6 iron, I landed the ball on the green and missed the hole by just a couple inches... but it rolled quite a bit further on and had me 3 putt again (arrgh.. this was the luck of the day, birdie chances that I turned into bogeys - but I must say, my putting wasn't all bad, just incredibly unlucky with lip outs and missed putts on the pro side).

A 96 with 33 putts, I consider good enough on this long course from the back tees. And, more importantly, I had a lot of good shots today and plenty of good chipping/pitching practice to reach the green). It certainly felt better than my score.





And lunch on the terrace with a view like this can hardly be topped!

Except maybe by the daily sunset at happy hour - when today I had a good glass of red to celebrate Lynn's 4 under in the second round at the German Open?!

Phuket Country Club: walk the course only... no buggies

Good exercise today. A lovely old course with beautiful setting that is best discovered walking... In fact, that is the only way on this course. Not a choice. It promised to be a hot day on the weather forecast it read something like 34°C, with 96% humidity that should feel like 39°C. Breaking a sweat was unavoidable I guess.

At home, I remember I claimed, I like the heat and have no problem with the humidity other than my hair going all like "sheep-wig". But after a while the heat gets to you. Thank God there is air-conditioning in my room, so I get the occasional break from the tropical heat. And, the prospect of winter setting in in Melbourne, looks not so bad a prospect after all.

98 with 40!!! putts.... ahh, that is bad. This is also one of the few times, when I played a better front nine (with 47) than back nine, but I guess this is natural when walking a course in these rather extreme conditions. One obviously gets tired...

today's sunset

The biggest things today: wedding at the beach and more sunset watching

My days without golf are just lazy... nothing much happens except for a little rain, lunch, drinks and people watching...

Today, there was a wedding at the beach, what a beautiful setting... and they were chasing the sunset as a backdrop to their pictures, while I also got my daily dose of ahh and oooooh at the beach with another beautiful sunset. That just about sums it up: another day in tropical paradise.

PS: Last, but certainly not least, our Moscow project, I have been informed is going live tomorrow. Good reason to celebrate and extending the happy hour today at the beach. Thank you everyone back home for the hard work and making it all happen, especially you Simone!

Red Mountain: I am coming back!

... coming back to play the course that is (not as in "I am playing well"). Maybe I was just distracted by all the beauty today... and maybe, I should also not have played from the back tees on this very long and also wet course. Zero roll. And, even with good drives (e.g. hole 6, par 4, 434 yards), I was still left with 200 yards (and no club in my bag that does that for me.

So, I consider today a lesson in chipping. Starting on 10 today, I had one of the highlights of the day on hole 18, a 40 yard chip that was just a foot away from the flag and saved me par.

In summary, I have played a triple digit 100 (including 5 pars, 2 birdie chances with a putts missed by an inch each... grrr adding up to 35, AND I have also lost 5 balls in the water...) But, what a view... I got to enjoy it only for 2h45 as playing by myself on this empty course made for a really quick round.

In the club house, I chose a green curry on the terrace. Very spicy, adding to the sweating even more, but really yummy and such a good color against the red mountains in the background.



And, sorry, no sunset picture today. After I got back in the early afternoon, it started raining and I went for a Thai and foot massage next door... before going back to my room and getting back up to speed with this blog.

40 & 1/12: seems unreal that I have already spent one month off work...

Yes, I feel pumped this morning to go and play a good round of golf. Blue Canyon Lakes course is on the agenda today and as I got up early, had a great breakfast and my driver already waiting for me, I thought it would be time to go hit the range before the round. Practice is a good thing - but maybe not in this humidity and heat. Mai mi lom: ron! (no wind = very hot!). After the range, I had to go to the locker, freshen up and re-apply sunscreen all over again...

The club is very impressive and the course is in good shape... and there is more water than I would have liked. On hole four, I was joined by Peter. He is a new member that plays from 18 up to 45! holes a day (the caddies think he is a bit crazy... and so do I, this cannot be healthy in this climate). A 96 with 31 putts (and losing a couple balls) from the back tees I guess is not such a bad result, especially after finding out, that there are no back tees for the ladies and I played the men's regular tees... (so no course and slope rating for me then on this course).

My favorite tree: Hon Nok Eung

not a "Hon Nok Eung",
but also very suay (pretty)

.... and last but not least, today's sunset (my godchild Alex loves them I am being told :)):

and this is really what it looked like (no photoshop...)

Sunday: more beach - and really lovely water today

While the waves were too rough yesterday - with a strong undercurrent - to go swimming in the sea, today it was much calmer and I was in the water for quite some time.

Otherwise, I just spent my day reading and chilling (well maybe more sweating than chilling...) and admiring the views...

close up view to the right side
of the beach

view to the left side

... and sunset: a spectacular happening here every day