Golf Stories: Thailand

Tom: I don’t know if you’d call it a thrill or not, but one that I remember more vivid like was playing in Thailand, in Bangkok. American Seniors went there. And I was paired with the head of the air force, the head of the legislature, and the police general. So that was said to be the most powerful three people in Thailand.

So we were playing and the police general — the other two, all of them spoke English, but the police general, walking around forward like [Tom makes an impression of a serious man with his arms folded across his chest], and he had two caddies. One of them held the umbrella over his head, and the other one carried the bag and had a stool on his shoulder. Walked up to the tee, he’d stand there, open the stool and he’d sit on the stool. The other one would pick out the driver, tee up the ball, he’d walk over, hit the ball, hand the club back to his caddy, walk on down the fairway, and all day long he never touched that golf ball one time. They’d clean it, place it, put it in the hole, he’d turn around and walk off. [laughter]

Alternate telling (Interview 6, Recording 46)

One of the strangest things that happened to me happened in golf. When I was playing golf, I was a member of American Seniors, International Seniors, Georgia Seniors, Western Seniors. So as a result of that I played just about everywhere golf was played. One time we were in Thailand. Bangkok. Just a social game, but I was paired with the head of the legislature, the head of the air force, and the police general. And the police general — all of them were real nice, all of them spoke English — and the police general had two caddies, all female. One of them carried a little stool on her shoulder and an umbrella over his head, the other caddy carried the golf clubs. And he got up to the tee, she’d unfold the seat, he’d sit down with his hands folded, and the other caddy would go tee the ball up, hand him the club, he’d get up, hit the ball, then walk on down the fairway. When he got on the green he’d putt the ball until it got in the cup, then he’d walk off. The caddy walked over and picked up the ball, then get to the next hole and tee it up. He played eighteen holes of golf and never touched that ball. [chuckles]