This is a suprisingly quirky course with a few wild stretches and one or two unusual elements on almost every hole. Unfortunately, the way it is strung together is less then ideal, perhaps owing to a returning nines mandate and the desire to have an addtional short course next to the clubhouse. The result is that the first hole is disconnected from the rest and there are more connector walks throughout the round. This leads to the rare situation of having a highly interesting layout, that has all the bones of a hidden gem, but still fails to charm.

For sure, it is a monumentally bad idea to start the round by having the players climb a hill and then play the first hole back down to where they came from, followed by an excruciatingly long walk to the second tee on the other side of the clubhouse. That being said, it's actually quite a relaxed start to the round from a golfing point of view, but the first difficult and quirky stretch starts at the 4th. From there on in it's a good mixture of long, short, wild, relentless, comfortable and pleasing holes that make for great entertainment. Variability is high, repetition low and the greens are quite undulated and supremely difficult to read. Every putt, even the shortest tiddler, demands full concentration. There is always more break than can be seen and it's quite easy to either roll it way past the hole or get viciously repelled to the side.

The only other gripe, besides the disconnected routing, is that the soil is very loamy and so the course will struggle in the shoulder seasons and after heavy rain. There is still some ground game, though, owing to the rolling and occasionally steep terrain and of course the contouring of the greens. If the routing could be fixed somehow, Thailing might just pip its neighbor Ebersberg, which is no slouch itself. As of now, it may have the better holes, but it is not the better course.