Societies
The Lanna Golf Network is not one club — it is several societies playing under one shared handicap system. This is where each one’s own story lives.
Chiang Mai Social Golfers (CMSG)
In 2002 there was a small but keen group of expats who enjoyed the occasional social round of golf and who regularly gathered at the Aussie Cafe. The cafe was run by Mark & Tae Ellenden and Mark was an ex teenage professional golfer from Australia. The Aussie Cafe was used at the time for pick-up & drop-off by Ric Cameron who had bought a mini bus and did Visa runs up to the border a couple of times a week. When not doing Visa Runs Ric would take a small group of us in his van to the various golf courses in and around Chiangmai.
Ric and Mark decided to put up money to form the club in an attempt to get discounts for us at the various golf courses and a ‘Kiwi’ named Tama Ruru provided free advertising. Tama ran several small businesses including a magazine where he advertised Ric’s visa runs and eventually the golf outings. After about 12 months Mark returned to Australia and Tama returned to NZ and Ric managed the club until he very generously handed it over to the members after the club was officially formed at the AGM in April 2004 with the first inaugural General Meeting held at the “Aussie Cafe” which resulted in the formation of our golfing society “Chiang Mai Social Golfers”.