Angkor Golf Resort hosted a professional competition on the Asian Tour in 2012 when the Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic, won by American David Lipsky, was played on the course.
Angkor Golf Resort hosted a professional competition on the Asian Tour in 2012 when the Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic, won by American David Lipsky, was played on the course.
The Angkor course is one of three international-standard golf facilities situated in the Siem Reap province of northwest Cambodia (the other two courses can be found at Phokeethra Country Club and Siem Reap Booyoung Country Club) and it opened for play in 2008.
Because the landscape was so flat, a large amount of soil was shifted to create movement in the fairways and so, as a consequence of digging holes to reposition earth around the course, there’s a pond or a lake to be negotiated on each and every one of the eighteen holes on the scorecard.
The signature hole is regarded as the 426-yard 15th, a slightly doglegged par four, where the fairway narrows on approach to the green. Water to the left of the fairway then cuts across the front of the putting surface to wrap around the other side of the green, offering a formidable aquatic challenge at this hole.
Angkor Golf Resort hosted a professional competition on the Asian Tour in 2012 when the Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic, won by American David Lipsky, was played on the course. Unfortunately, the tournament has so far proved to be a one-off event.
The latest ranking of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World serves as the ultimate global golf bucket list. Most members of our World Top 100 Panel are seasoned golfers, each playing 20-30 of these courses annually while travelling extensively over decades to form their opinions on others. We recognise that opinions vary—even among our panel members. Rankings are subjective, and there are undoubtedly 50 or more courses in the UK and USA alone that could easily fit onto this list. Links Golf Pilgrimages The rankings
California, United States
New Jersey, United States
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
New York, United States
New York, United States
Top 5 Golf Courses of Cambodia and Laos We extend our Southeast Asian rankings in the adjoining countries of Cambodia and Laos Cambodia Cambodia’s still very much an emerging Southeast Asian golf destination. In a country of fifteen million people which has taken four decades to recover from the genocide carried out by the 1970s Khmer Rouge government (when an estimated two million residents were killed during a brutal 5-year period), it’s astonishing that golf exists at all in a nation with such a troubled recent history. Top 100 Golf Courses has featured a couple of Cambodian courses for a while now, but we feel it’s time to shed some light on a few other recently constructed top-end facilities that have opened for business so we’ve created a new national Top 5 chart to showcase a handful of the best layouts available in and around the country’s two main golfing hotspots, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. There are still only 500 players registered with the Cambodian Golf Federation so golf is still seen by many as largely the preserve of visiting foreign tourists and businessmen. Still, it helps that the Prime Minister is a reasonably proficient player himself and somebody who sees the value in having his administration help developers provide a golfing infrastructure that enhances the overall tourism product. Our number 1 Cambodian course remains the Nick Faldo design at Angkor Golf Resort situated close to Siem Reap International Airport. Unveiled in 2008, the course is carpeted in Seashore Paspalum, allowing consistent, all-year round playing conditions from tee to green. Measuring 7,279 yards from the back markers, it hosted the Handa Faldo Cambodian Classic on the Asian Tour four years after first opening. Two other ranked courses are located within a short drive from Angkor. To the east, at number 2, Siem Reap Booyoung is a big-budget venture that’s undergone several changes of ownership since debuting in 2009. To the west, at number 3, the course at Phokeethra Country Club has been in operation since 2007, when the Cambodian Open was also contested at the club the same year. All three layouts are similar in that a lot of soil was shifted to shape a landscape that’s largely level, with substantial water hazards now featuring at most of the holes. There’s also plenty of sand to contend with and no doubt, in time, the many thousands of trees that have been planted will play their part in the defence of the courses as they continue to fully mature. Positions 4 and 5 in the new national chart are occupied by a couple of courses that lie within easy access of Phnom Penh city centre: LYP Group’s Garden City (at number 4) is another all-paspalum grassed layout that’s currently managed by IMG and Grand Phnom Penh (at number 5) is a Nicklaus Design track which acts as the sporting focal point in a big residential and commercial project to the north of the capital. Rank/ To view further details of the Top 5 Golf Courses of Cambodia click the link. Laos Lao, or Lao People’s Democratic Republic to give the nation its full title, is a landlocked country in the middle of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula, bordering Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and China. Lao’s been under communist rule since the mid-1970s but it’s gradually beginning to adopt a more outward looking approach, as evidenced by its membership of the World Trade Organization in 2013. Tourism is scheduled to account for around US$1.5 billion of the nation’s annual income by 2020 as visitor numbers continue to grow (around 4.5 million international visitors are estimated to have arrived last year) with temples, trekking, wildlife trails and World Heritage sites all presenting themselves as obvious attractions. Still, there’s no doubt that new golf facilities also have a role to play in boosting the intake of potential visitors. As with Cambodia, Top 100 Golf Courses has listed a pair of Laos courses for a few years now and we think it’s about time people were made aware of a few other high class golf facilities that have recently thrown their doors open to the public, allowing the formation of our new Top 5 chart for Laos - admittedly, that represents more than half the total number of courses in the entire country but we certainly think they’re all worthy of national recognition. And so, new at number 1, the heavily-wooded course at Luang Prabang Golf Club is now our top track in Laos. Hewn from thickly forested terrain, this 6-year-old layout sits close to the Mekong River in a mountainous region where every hole on the course is played in almost total seclusion. An eminently walkable course with only moderate changes in elevation, it’s one for true golfing nature lovers. Three hundred kilometres to the south, just outside Vientianne, the lakeside course at Dansavanh Nam Ngum Resort drops down one position to the runner-up slot at number 2. On the other side of the capital, Long Thanh-Vientiane Golf Club also falls one place to number 3, with this course being the first of two 18-hole layouts planned for a massive residential development that’s due to open in 2020. A new entry at number 4, the three nines at SEA Games Golf Club were constructed specifically for the 25th edition of the Southeast Asian Games in 2009 and our final newcomer at number 5 is the layout at Lao Country Club (formerly known as the Youth Garden Golf Course) which recently underwent a substantial renovation to bring the course up to modern resort standards. To view further details of the Top 5 Golf Courses of Laos click the link. If you’ve any strong views on either of our updated Asian rankings then please get in touch with us by using the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page. We always welcome feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, so don’t hold back on sharing your thoughts. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses
Arnold Palmer Joins Cambodian Golf Boom 14th August 2008 Golfing great Arnold Palmer recently confirmed his company will build a 36-hole golf course in Cambodia. Arnold Palmer Design Company had been retained to build the course at the new 1-billion-dollar resort development by the Sokha group at the former French colonial Bokor Hill Station Resort. The Sokha Group's Project Manager said, "He is the best in the US and we want the best golf course in Cambodia. The plan is for the course to cover 200 hectares with 36 holes, but we will start by opening an 18-hole course so we can assess and observe the conditions. Construction is due to begin in 2009". Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is perhaps the only world leader to list his golf scores on his personal website, and the Cambodian elite, as in most of Asia, is golf crazy. There is even a Korean-managed public putting range in the centre of the Cambodian Senate's grounds. Cambodia is also aggressively chasing the high-end tourist dollar, and golf courses have mushroomed across the country in the past five years as the country enjoys peace and economic stability. Palmer, 78, is among the great golfers of all time, winning seven major championships during his career, which began in the 1950s, and being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. His successful design company has designed 300 golf courses to date, according to his website, and prides itself on being in tune with the environment - an attractive trait for Bokor, which lies in a national park, around 200 kilometres from the capital. From: Asia Adventures
Sokha Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality division of the Cambodian petroleum giant Sokimex, has appointed the Orlando based Arnold Palmer Design Company as the official designer and architectural consultant for a new course in Southern Cambodia. Bokor Mountain Golf & Country Club course will be located at the foot of Bokor Mountain which is a popular tourist trail, not only for the cool mountain air, but also the panoramic views across Southern Cambodia and Vietnam. The 18-hole Arnold Palmer Signature Course will be set in 45 lush, tropical hectares close to the Bokor National Park. The course is due to open at the end of 2010 and a second 18-hole Arnold Palmer course is also planned in a later phase.
