Top 50 Golf Courses of Thailand 2017
We create three new regions and extend our coverage in the Kingdom of Thailand to a Top 50
Thailand’s golf brand remains as strong as ever, if events at the recent International Association of Golf Travel Operators awards ceremony in Mallorca are anything to go by. The Asia and Australasia Golf Destination of the Year 2017 was awarded to Chiang Mai Province in Northern Thailand and the Sustainable Golf Course of the Year 2017 award (with regard to Community Value) was allocated to Laguna Golf Phuket, on the Andaman island of the same name.
We’ve gone some way towards recognising the wide geographical spread of Thai golf by dividing our coverage within the country into three distinct areas; north, south and central. Although the new national Top 50 is dominated by courses from Bangkok, Hua Hin and Pattaya in Central Thailand, we now maintain a Top 10 for both the Northern and Southern regions, allowing us to shine the spotlight a little bit wider than before onto a total of sixty different courses.
And so, without further ado, we can reveal that our latest national rankings for Thailand are headed by the impressive Ayodhya Links in Bangkok, a Thomson & Perrett design that debuted almost exactly a decade ago now. Described by one reviewer as “nothing short of a miracle… extremely challenging… full of subtlety and wonderful bunkering,” it’s a very private facility that doesn’t see much traffic during the year.
In the runner-up spot at number 2 – having climbed three places to number 3 when we updated the chart two years ago – we have Ron Garl’s mid-1990s layout at Alpine Golf Club. Situated to the north of the capital, not far from Ayodhya Links, this course was described by the author in James Spence’s book The Finest Golf Courses of Asia & Australasia as “an exquisite tropical gem, a good test and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
Also moving up one position to number 3, the Old course at Siam Country Club is one of three courses operated by a prestigious club that’s located half an hour’s drive to the east of Pattaya. Originally opened for play in 1971 then renovated by Schmidt & Curley in 2007, the layout is home to the Honda LPGA Thailand ladies’ tournament and the 11th edition of this annual event will be held here next month.
The course at Thai Country Club in Bangkok also makes a positive move up the new chart, rising three places to number 6. Twenty years in operation this year, the 18-hole layout was a brand new track designed by Dennis Griffiths when it hosted the Asian Honda Classic in 1997, an event won by newly-turned professional Tiger Woods, who ran away with the tournament when he claimed the title by a 10-stroke winning margin from his nearest rival.
The 27-hole complex at Laem Chabang International Country Club outside Pattaya makes a significant move up the national listings, leaping four spots to number 7, and this is one of half a dozen Thai courses which were laid out by the Golden Bear’s design company in the early 1990s. The preferred 18-hole combination here consists of the B (Lake) and C (Valley) nines but the hillier A (Mountain) circuit at the back of the property is also not short of admirers.
Further down the 2017 Thai standings, the highest new entry at number 20 comes from Rajpruek, a Michael J. Poellot design that sits close to Don Muang, Bangkok’s old international airport. Invited guests may have a little overhead interference from incoming and outgoing aircraft to contend with when playing here but they’ll tell you it’s a price worth paying to sample this beautiful private parkland track.
Several recent developments impacted on our Thai ranking process, including Schmidt & Curley’s unveiling of a new 18-hole course – with spaceship-styled clubhouse – at Royal Bang Pa-In Golf Club (a new entry at number 26). An additional 9-hole layout (the West course) at Black Mountain Golf Club in Hua Hin also opened earlier this month whilst the Alpine Golf Resort in Chiang Mai has just been extended and upgraded to a 27-hole facility.
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To view our Thailand Top 50 click the link. As ever, we’d be delighted to find out what you think of this revised Asian national chart. Why not get in touch with us via the “respond to this article” link at the top or bottom of this page if you have any strong opinions? We’re also keen to publish more reviews for our Thai courses so if you’ve played any of the country's top tracks then we’d be really pleased to have you post a few sentences to let us know what you thought about your playing experience.
Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
Top 40 Golf Courses of Thailand 2015 Thailand does its best to maintain its reputation as the powerhouse of southeast Asian golf The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s assertion that the country is “increasingly becoming a top destination for travellers looking for great courses, great prices, and great service” is one that’s hard to disagree with. Indeed, as the global economy slowly emerges from a lengthy period of recession and the number of golfers booking golf holidays in The Kingdom of Thailand appears to be on the increase, the TAT statement is one that deserves our wholehearted endorsement. Over 200 golf courses are dotted around the country and more than a quarter of the layouts are located in and around the main centre of population in Bangkok, as might be expected. To the mountainous north of the country, in the Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai regions, you’ll find over a dozen top class courses, including Santiburi and Chiangmai Highlands, with most of the remaining Thai golf facilities arranged in three clusters to the south of the capital in Pattaya, Hua Hin and Phuket. We’ve presented the best courses in Thailand since 2009, expanding the coverage to thirty 18-hole layouts in 2012. Utilising local knowledge gleaned from regional correspondents, the number of ranked courses in Thailand has just been increased to forty and in the latest edition of the Thai chart, eleven courses move up, eleven drop down, four remain in the same position and another four fall from the ratings completely, allowing fourteen new entries to come in. For a nation that’s normally so accessible, many will find it ironic that our top three tracks in Thailand are all private facilities, where only members and invited guests can play. We make no distinction between private and public courses. If a course is amongst the best in its district/region/state/nation then it’s ranked, regardless of who can or can’t play it, it’s as simple as that. We don’t endorse elitism, we merely exhibit the best courses that exist around the world. Kimi, our Southern Asian correspondent, played the Thai No. 1 course at Ayodhya Links recently and was suitably impressed by what he found, saying, “this Thomson & Perrett design is a masterpiece for them. It is perfect in every aspect. Many holes are memorable and impressive. The owner is using a non-chemical method of golf course maintenance so it is an organic golf course. In order to maintain this great course, the owner keeps paying the multi-million dollar deficits every year as he loves his course and likes it very private”. Expect a full review from Kimi in the near future. Another two courses in the greater Bangkok area hog the limelight in our new listings. The Schmidt & Curley-designed Amata Spring course, former host venue of the Royal Trophy between 2006 and 2010, features a rather ingenious floating island green at its par three 17th hole and it retains the runner up spot in our new Thai table. This new millennium design has also managed to hold off the “botanical garden” layout at Alpine Golf Club, which climbs a couple of places to number three. The modern beach resort of Pattaya lies on the Gulf of Thailand, to the southeast of the capital, and it’s home to the number four course in Thailand, the Old at Siam Country Club, which was redesigned in 2007. Other highly rated golf facilities in this area include the 27-hole Jack Nicklaus complex at Laem Chabang International, along with the rather unconventional Des Muirhead layout at St Andrews 2000, an 18-hole course that plays to a par of 74, including par sixes at holes 4 and 13. Thailand’s original beach resort at Hua Hin, on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand from Pattaya, is situated a two and a half-hour drive from Bangkok and it somehow manages to retain much of its old fashioned charm, despite the many modern day tourist pressures exerted on it. Amongst the many good quality golf courses located in this region, the modern courses at Banyan (up five places to number five) and Black Mountain (down three spots to number seven) are undoubtedly the finest in the locality. The island of Phuket, lying just off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea, is internationally recognised as one of the most exotic travel destinations in southeast Asia. Fortunately for golfers, it has eight golf courses available for public play, the best of which are the fabulous Canyon and Lakes courses at Blue Canyon (number eight and twelve, respectively, in our national chart) and the remarkable Red Mountaincourse, which the Morrow Tikkanen design company introduced in 2004 (up six places to number six in our new listings). Major golf developments in Thailand last year included the construction of new 18-hole courses at Nikanti Golf Club in Bangkok and at Katathong Golf Club in Phang Nha. There was also the addition of another nine at Chiang Mai Highlands, creating an expanded 27-hole complex. And with substantial renovation work carried out at Laguna Phuket and Gassan Legacy, there’s no way anybody could say that Thailand was not trying to keep pace with a fast-changing golf world. To view our new Thailand Top 40 click the link. As ever, we welcome feedback so please let us know if you have any strong feelings about our new Thai listings. We never boast of publishing “definitive” lists but we do think that we produce the “most informed” rankings in the golf industry. If you’ve been fortunate enough to tee it up at any of the courses below, why not post a review and share your views with us? Dragon Hills, Evergreen Hills, Panorama and Royal Ratchaburi are the four courses that have dropped out of our latest Thai chart to make way for fourteen new entries. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses
Gil Hanse's recreation of the lost, legendary Lido to open in August 2021 Gil Hanse has already made waves designing courses abroad, making his South American debut with the host layout for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He wasn’t necessarily looking to compete with that when making his Asian debut, however the concept was bound to create headlines: A recreation of the lost, legendary Lido Club. Now that long-discussed course, the Ballyshear Links just outside of Bangkok, has an opening date: August, 2021. The course will be hosted at the Ban Rakat Club — a highly-exclusive establishment, reportedly with only 400 members —which is chaired by Takeyasu Aiyama. Aiyama is also the chairman at Yokohama Golf Club. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw had done renovations at that club, and Aiyama was looking for inspiration for the property to become Ban Rakat. Interestingly, Coore recommended Hanse. Hanse and Wagner arrived at the property in Thailand and did not necessarily find anything evocative in the terrain. In fact, it was almost pancake flat. That opened another door, however, allowing Hanse and Wagner to apply their “caveman” personas and move more dirt than usual to create a bolder concept. Few concepts could be as bold as recreating the iconic Long Island club. Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor were known for their template-based approach to golf course design, which resulted in some of the world’s greatest golf courses, including the National Golf Links of America, Fishers Island, Chicago Golf Club and more. Although legend helps create hype, some hypothesize Lido may have been superior to all of them. Ballyshear 12th green Macdonald and Raynor were not at all “minimalists,” and Hanse and Wagner saw fit to emulate that historic pair’s approach with this piece of land. “Normally...we feel strongly that a golf course should be the product of its surrounds. But in the back of our minds, my partner Jim Wagner and I have often wondered what we would do with a completely flat site — what can you do to distinguish it?” Hanse said. “The most famous example of a manufactured golf course from The Golden Age was The Lido. Jim and I had always wanted to do a MacDonald/Raynor, angular grass-faced bunker design. We pitched the idea to the owner at Ballyshear and he loved it.” Ballyshear 14th tee The name “Ballyshear” is derived from the name of Macdonald’s own estate on Long Island. As with almost all of Macdonald and Raynor’s designs, template holes based on Macdonald’s travels in the UK were the basis for Lido’s design. If you’ve been keeping up with Top 100’s template architecture series, you’ve already learned about a few holes at Lido. The most famous hole at the course was the “ Channel,” based on Littlestone’s No. 16 hole. At the Lido version, players had the option to significantly shorten a long par five by first making a bold drive from the tee over the title “channel” to a rightward fairway, followed by another long, quality approach. It is near the ultimate in risk/reward, requiring two near perfect shots or else penalty will ensue. Ballyshear 17th hole Another example you’ve seen on this site is “ Narrows.” Although there is some debate whether the opener at Lido qualified, Macdonald did make a comparison between the two holes, with their respective fairway bunkering pinching the fairway. Other history was made at Lido as well. Although Alister MacKenzie no doubt would have found some success eventually as an architect, Lido represented his “breakthrough” moment. Country Life magazine held a contest for design submissions, which MacKenzie won with an entry that has come to be known as the “Lido” template. Macdonald and Raynor were so impressed by this multi-fairway par four that it ended up being used as the closing hole. The Lido also marked the debut of the minor template known as “Raynor’s Prize Dogleg,” a long par four requiring a long, precise tee shot to get home in two to an undulating green. Although named for the famous architect, it was actually an adaptation of another entry into the Country Life contest. Not that anyone reading this post will have played the original Lido, but if the golf historian gets the chance to play at Ballyshear, they will notice the routing is almost a perfect replica. “Almost,” as the property required the second and sixth holes to be switched to make the concept work. A small detail, probably not to be mourned by architecture enthusiasts. Ballyshear 18th tee For what it’s worth, Hanse is most keen on the final pair of holes, based on the “ Long” template and of course MacKenzie’s contribution, respectively. “At Ballyshear, I think the 17th and 18th, with their shared waste bunker between them, came out extremely well,” he said. “The scale of those two holes at Lido was impressive and we were able to capture that at Ballyshear.” Ballyshear will be the first Lido recreation to market, but rumors abound that Mike Keiser is looking to build a similar project near his Sand Valley Resort (albeit a private course in this case) in Wisconsin, with Tom Doak at the helm. Keep your eyes on Top100GolfCourses.com for updates on both projects.
Review of the Month September 2018 – Navatanee Oops I did it again; I got sucked into playing an overly expensive Asian golf course that rates fairly highly within the country. In the case of this course, Navatanee, likely based on two factors: it stills clings to the World Cup 1975 tag and the fact that it's an expensive and mostly private club. However, it's a flat, parkland or even resort style layout that quickly became repetitive – if it wasn't for the photos and notes I took during the round I'd scarcely be able to recall a single hole 24 hours later. Additionally, it was very wet underfoot and most balls plugged on the fairways and surrounds. Whilst it had rained the night before, the addition of sprinklers had kept everything far too wet and really, this course is in tropical Asia where rain is pretty much a constant. If the conditioning can't cope with a small amount of rain I'd hate to think what it was like after a real downpour. Really surprised that this course is rated anywhere near the top 10 to 15 in Thailand: as a club, sure it has a nice clubhouse and lots of staff (more staff working on the course than golfers playing midweek) and it looked tidy enough, but if I really consider the key points of the course design, conditioning and aesthetics, it was pretty average. Another word comes to mind: confected. A course confected from flat floodplain. There must be better and better value golf in Bangkok and I think this course would be more accurately rated 3.5 balls. By Scarlett Review of the Month September 2018 selected by Editor-in-Chief, Keith Baxter – click to read more about Navatanee.
