Luang Prabang

The golf course at Luang Prabang Golf Club is situated in northern Laos, on the south bank of the mighty Mekong River, just outside Luang Prabang, where this ancient city – which is best known for its many Buddhist temples – was regarded as the nation’s royal capital up until 1975.

The course was hewn from a thickly forested landscape and it’s played in two distinct anti-clockwise loops that each return to the clubhouse, with no parallel fairways in operation. Playing corridors are relatively tight, sometimes only 35-40 yards wide, so keeping the ball in play is an absolute essential.

A few ponds feature on the front half at holes 3, 5 and 7 but golfers really need to be rather wayward for any of them to impede their progress. On the back nine, the routing touches the riverside at the par three 17th before swooping uphill towards the clubhouse and the home green.