West Region PGA secretary Ray Ellis and his wife Linda both former captains of Exeter Golf and Country Club spent a spring holiday in Thailand visiting an old friend.
They stayed ten days with former Exeter club professional Frank Kilbride, now aged 57, in the same hotel complex.
He is now married to a Thai lady, Lisa, and has a six-year-old daughter Amy.
He went to Thailand in 1990 for six months and has stayed on.
He was teaching in Bangkok for the first nine months and became coach to the Thailand national amateur team in 1991 when they won the Putra Cup, an amateur team tournament in South East Asia.
He has found membership of the PGA has been a passport to his success in Asia.
The qualifications are respected the world over.
His travels with the Thai national team took him to Hua Hin which is now rivaling Bangkok, Phuket and the Pattaya areas as a major golfing destination for tourists.
There are six courses in Hua Hin and, to do his part to attract golfers from overseas, he founded Hua Hin Golf Tours. He has now taken over a hotel and restaurant.
He remains closely involved with the Asian PGA Tour. He travels to all countries in the area collating the scores and organising on-course scoreboards.
He left the Ellis's when he flew to Kuala Lumpur where he was co-ordinating the scoring for the Malaysian Open.
Frank spent 25 years as a professional and is an honorary member of the PGA. He once played in The Open.
He took over from the late Norman Sutton at Exeter.
He was succeeded by the present professional Mike Rowett, a former captain of the West Region.
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