Rajpruek

With their course located almost directly under the flightpath to and from nearby Don Mueang international airport, the members of Rajpruek Golf Club must have been delighted with its closure in 2006 when the new Suvarnabhumi international airport was opened.

Unfortunately, the aerial peace and quiet didn’t last long and the old airport has since reopened when it was found that the new one couldn’t cope with the unprecedented increase in air passenger movement, so Rajpruek has just had to get used to coping with its noisy overhead traffic once again.

The course is laid out on a very compact property, hemmed in by suburbia on all sides, so quite a few fairways run parallel to one another. Nonetheless, the generous width of these tree-lined playing corridors mitigates against any thoughts of ever feeling too restricted.

Although the layout is built on a fairly flat site, the spoil from the lakes that were fashioned during course construction has been used to good effect to creatively construct some subtle contouring, adding just a little bit of elevation change around the property.

The bunkers, of which there are many, are a sight to behold here. A few circular-shaped greenside traps are dotted around the course but most of the fairway bunkers – especially the large ones built around the lake edges – are of the “cookie-cutter” variety, constructed for their very high visibility.