Golf in Bhutan

Golf in Bhutan is a bit different. There are 3 courses in the country and I am lucky to work at and play the best one, Royal Thimphu Golf Club. Royal Thimphu began in the 1970's. Supposedly the King wanted to preserve the green space around the zhong (palace), but was tired of the stench emitting from the rice fields near by. Someone suggested that he build a golf course. The King knew nothing of golf, but liked the idea of keeping the sprawl of urban Thimphu at bay while concurrently adding another game for the Bhutanese to play. Later that decade a rich Japanese businessman came to the area and made the course what it is today. He contoured the fairways, shaped the greens and brought the golf course into modernity. Despite the quirkiness of golf in this part of the world, the mounding and layout are surprisingly strong. Most of the greens are flat and domed (think of less severe Pete Dye) with challenging bunkers on several holes. The members of the course wanted their prized golf course to be difficult so water hazards were added as well. Water hazards here come in two varieties. Irrigation canals that run 3-4 feet wide crossing close in front of greens, and cement bathtub ponds, which are a bit smaller than the greens themselves, but quite deep. They remind me of swimming pools in AZ except that most of the bathtubs have cracks in the bottom requiring constant watered during the dry season (winter). However, during the monsoon season the ponds are filled to the brim, as Thimphu experiences 5 meters of rain in the summer. A major point of conflict recently have been the school children of the area using the ponds as swimming pools while golfers attempt to play the course. In Bhutan, things like this happen all the time. The members will yell at the kids and vent their frustration to the committee and yet the informal afternoon swimming lessons will continue. Despite the members best intentions, the golf course has the feel of public land. Kids, dogs, and people in general wander through the course on their way to wherever they may be headed. The latest idea is to surround the course with thorny bushes and fences to keep the public at bay. It's a nice plan on paper, but it seems likely that the fences will soon have child sized holes in them.

The course itself is tucked on a small strip of land without much room to expand. At current, the course has 9 holes with 2 sets of tees on each hole. This makes it possible to go around twice and play a par 67, which stretches out to about 5800 yards. One might think this would be a simple test, yet I can honestly say that shooting par at a 7,000 yard course back home is undoubtedly easier. Royal Thimphu's main weapon against golfers is the rough, a maniacal combination of fescue, clover, and kikuyu that goes to your knees in most spots. Missed fairways are almost always lost balls, costing the golfer 2 shots. Having a really good forecaddie helps, but even so, the average member loses 6-10 balls per round. So if you ever meet a tanned Bhutanese kid who plays at Royal Thimphu and claims to have a 12 handicap, don't get yourself in a serious money game. In all likelihood he's better than your local club pro.

My job with the BYGA is to train and mentor Bhutan's youth golfers, which seems like simple enough assignment. The difficulty of the task lies in two areas. First, the facilities at Royal Thimphu aren't the best. Secondly, the bureaucracy of the course makes it difficult to accomplish anything. We have a range, which has a small tee deck offering 6 blades of grass per square meter. In other words, you hit shots off dirt. The other problem with the range lies in the landing area, which is also the 2nd fairway, perhaps the most dangerous acre in all of Bhutan. Stripe your tee shot down the middle of the fairway while you're playing the 2nd hole and you have put yourself in prime position for death by Top Flite. Some players on the range may stop hitting, but don't count on it. It's best to watch the range for incoming artillery until its time to hit your shot. Then proceed quickly without a practice swing, knowing this could be the best last shot you ever hit.

Thankfully change is on the way. Already plans have been made to add a small range between the 2nd and 9th fairways. It will be a tremendous amount of work, but the kids of the BYGA will help and Josh Adrian, a golf course superintendent here from the US, has enough knowledge to get us started. I've been given a tentative okay from the course captain to begin work. Now if only I had a bobcat to move some dirt, sand to create a green, and seed, sun, and water to make it grow...



You can see here the spectacular view from the 2nd tee, and the fairway which currently doubles as the driving range.



Coronation Cup
This weekend is the Coronation Cup, a 36 hole tournament commemorating K5's (the 5th King) coronation, I think. The prize is a 3 day trip for 2 to Thailand which includes airfare, golf and spa. Even so, I've heard rumors from the kids that a lot of the members will purposely play bad to keep their handicap high for the next tournament, which has a small car as the first prize. Generally caddies win these tournaments because the handicap system only reflects tournament rounds and everyone starts out at 18. My good friend Karma (the 12 handicap who plays like a 2) won a washing machine in the last tournament. His cloths are now the cleanest of all the caddies.

As an outsider who "has a nice game", I'm not eligible to play, which is quite strange given that I'm really the only professional in Bhutan, and therefore the only one who should be playing for such a prize. According to USGA and R&A rules back home, prizes for amateur tournaments can't be worth more than $750. Accepting any prize worth more would terminate one's status as an amateur. Chang, the course manager jokes that "there are actually no amateur golfers left in Bhutan".

Although I'd like to play to experience competitive golf in Bhutan, not playing has its benefits too. Most notably, avoiding an 8 hour round of golf, the result of five-somes playing on a short course with more opportunities to lose your golf ball than the 17th at Sawgrass.

Look for another update next weekend...