The Indian Ocean tsunami and Tublamu Navy Golf Course

There were 60 golfers on the course, along with caddies, when the tsunami wave slammed into the Tublamu Navy Golf Course on December 26, 2004.¹

This GOLF Magazine article has some stories of what happened at the golf course that day, and how the course was being rebuilt. My friend Edward Boyda and I wrote that after a reporting trip to southern Thailand in September 2005.

Before the tsunami, the grass on the greens, as at most military courses in Thailand, was manilagrass. When the course was rebuilt, and redesigned, after the tsunami, the greens were planted to Novotek bermudagrass. But the tees and fairways remained manilagrass, and by 2011 the greens were mostly overtaken by nuan noi manilagrass, and by 2014 the greens were almost all manilagrass.

For more about this course and the adjacent Sea Turtle Conservation Center, see this post.