What are the main differences between Siam CC Old Course and Siam CC Plantation Course? Which course should I play and why?
Siam Country Club Old course has been set up as a championship course to host national and international events. The course has large bunkers and greens that have run off area that filter the ball away from the green for a shot that hasn’t been hit crisp. The fairways are quite wide from tree line to tree line but the rough is cut in quite dramatically offering the fairway to the straight drive. Fairway bunkers are placed very strategically to protect the ideal line and are located right on the driving distance for the players, regardless of the colour markers you use.
The holes are a great mixture of doglegs both left and right, some great par threes with water `carries and the best finishing holes you will find anywhere in Thailand. The par 5 18th is a great dogleg to the left with fairway bunkers catching your ball if you try and take the short cut up the left hand side. Your second shot needs to miss the collection of fairway bunkers littered up the centre of the fairway, and when you look at yr third shot to the green you will find three large tiers in the the green and a green that measures 35 metres from front to back !!
Siam Plantation is the newest brother to the Old Course and has 27 holes on offer the Tapioca, Sugarcane and Pineapple nines.
The 1st Hole on the Sugar Cane course is an absolute gem. You stand on the tee and figure out just how to miss all those bunkers. It’s a great piece of design work by the course designer an opening holes that could have been very ordinary but with the use of clever placements of bunkers at specific driving distances give you no alternative but to take the safe route and not try and cut the corner to get to the green.
The Sugar cane nine is quite generous off the tee, there are fairway bunkers along the sides of the fairways and nestled around the green, but I believe this course rewards the golfer that can hit good second shots to green, using the slopes in the greens to get the ball close to the hole. Some of the greens are quite large so hitting your irons correct yardages is most important.
The 5th hole is a dual fairway par 5 where you need to manoeuvre your ball to miss the 26 bunkers this hole has. Again plot your way though the maze and when you reach the green you come to a green sloping fiercely front to back with a large tier through the middle.
There are many great holes on this course and its one of the course that you will find doesn’t have a bad hole amongst the layouts. Some courses you find have some spectacular holes and few memorable ones and a few plain holes, you will leave Plantation with memories of each hole you played.
If you only have time to play one of these courses, if you are a low single figure marker to mid teens` and you want to test yourself go and play the Old course and play from the Blue markers. This length will test your driving, mid to long irons and will use every club in the bag chipping to get the ball close to the hole.
If you are a mid to high marker and hit the ball a little wayward at times and don’t enjoy losing 6 balls a round, play at Plantation and take careful notice of the yardages your caddies gives you to the pin, coming up short will give you either a tricky chip to a tightly guarded pin or a 70 foot putt.
Irrespective of which course you play, choosing the tee markers that suits your ability is a key ingredient of playing near to your handicap.
In March 2014, your decision will be made just that little harder with the New Siam Country Club (Waterside) being opened.