Links Are a Lure to Clients : In Bangkok, Golf Is Very Big Business

BANGKOK, Thailand —  Where women in straw hats once stooped to tend rice in the marshy fields around Bangkok, executives in long-peaked caps now curse and replace their divots.

Golf is booming in Thailand as a status symbol for up-and-coming businessmen.

Paddy fields on Bangkok’s outskirts are rapidly being drained and turned into neatly tended courses surrounded by luxury housing estates for a growing middle-class.

Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda is a standard-bearer of a new army of drivers, chippers and putters combining business with pleasure on the links.

Links as a Lure

“Prem would happily leap out of bed at 5:30 a.m. for a round of golf but he would be less enthusiastic to get up at that time for an official appointment,” said a top official at Navatanee, the first Thai course built to international standards.

Sukhum Navaphan, president of Navatanee, said golf and business were so intertwined that an unwritten rule existed banning business talk on the green and golf talk on the fairway.

As a sign of its rapid development, Thailand now has about 50 courses, 21 of them in the steamy Bangkok suburbs.

Thatree Boondicharoen, a Thai developer and keen player, said the typical golfer had changed in the last 10 years from a middle-age tycoon to a young executive in his 30s who often uses the links to lure reluctant clients.

Cashing in on Trend

“If you invite a client to lunch, he’ll say he’s too busy, but if you suggest a round of golf, he’ll just say, ‘Where?’ and set a time,” said Thatree.

Thai and foreign developers cashing in on the trend say that despite steep fees and restrictive membership lists, memberships to new golf clubs are snapped up as soon as they go on the market.

Thatree said the number of golfers have tripled to 60,000 in the last five years.

Developers say most the golf clubs are operating at a profit despite high investment and maintenance costs.

Navatanee, which opened in 1973 with a registered capital of $2.4 million, has consistently made a profit since the boom began in the early 1980s, manager Klai Navapan said.

Exclusive Sport

Membership fees range from $2,000 at more modest courses to $20,000 at Navatanee, Thailand’s most exclusive course.

Comparatively low green fees, from about $8 to $32, help attract players. But with many Thais earning less than the official minimum of $3 a day, it is still an exclusive sport.

The game’s popularity has not peaked yet and parents have started dragging children to lessons to get an early start for the sake of their leisure and their career.

Sukree Onsham, Thailand’s best-known professional golfer, who counts 8-year-olds among his pupils, said he had to come up with several ploys to keep their attention but thinks the effort is worthwhile.

“They get a good start on the game and it keeps them from mixing with back-street kids,” he said.