Where to Golf: Choosing the Best of Thailand’s 250 Golf Courses

Thailand is not just a dream getaway location but is also a golfing paradise having at least 250 golf courses to its name. Besides the exotic food, pristine beaches and diverse culture, Thailand also has some of the best golf courses of world class championship layouts.

These golf courses attract close to a million visitors every year providing some of the best views and experience. Irrespective of whether you are an amateur or a professional golfer, Thailand is one of the most ideal places for golfers combining the lush landscape and the gorgeous weather with the challenging terrain.

Below is a comprehensive guide about the Best Golf Courses in Thailand. This is very informative and useful for the golf enthusiasts and would help you on where to tee off when in Thailand.

• Santiburi Country Club, Thailand
  
• Red Mountain Golf Club, Thailand
  
• Alpine Golf Club, Thailand
  
• Banyan Golf Club, Thailand
  
• Black Mountain Golf Club, Thailand
  
• Siam Country Club, Thailand
  
• Chiangmai Highlands Golf Club, Thailand
  

Santiburi Country Club Golf Course, Chiang Rai

This golf course belongs to the Singha beer people and is probably the sole reason for golfer traffic to Chiang Rai. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, this golf course is undoubtedly one of the best golf courses in Thailand having a natural landscape, beautiful surrounding views and amazing conditioning which helps in delivering an amazing golf experience to the players.

The queue of amazing holes, one after the other, maintains the thrill proceeding towards two contrasting sets of 9s having a watery one and the other quite hilly. The two finishing holes in the very end suffice in delivering a high quality experience providing a tantalizing finish to the game, especially when it’s a matchplay format.

Red Mountain Golf Club, Phuket

This golf course designed by Al Tikkanen and John Morrow, is another spectacular and challenging golf course. There is a reason as to why Red Mountain is one the top of the list of the best golf courses in Thailand. Having a dense forest, beautiful landscape, rocky outcrops, steep elevation changes and deep ravines, this place is too good to be given a miss.

Not only is the quality of the course excellent but is extremely well maintained and you get thrills abound, both in every shot and every view you see and experience. It is deadly tight in some parts. Keeping the wind aspect aside, the elevation change in the course alone is sufficient to play tricks with the club selection.

Alpine Golf Club, Bangkok

When it comes to the course condition, layout and a challenging round of golf, there is no better place than the Alpine Golf Club. A high quality golf with a dense and mature vegetation, strategic bunkering, tight boundaries and expansive water bodies, this golf course has a world class championship layout. The holes on the Alpine Golf Course don’t seem to be that easy and even if some are, they don’t look that easy. In this course there is no hole that won’t stand out but of all, the par 5,7th with its island green is pretty good and memorable. The Alpine Golf Course is a must play in the Thailand golf scene.

Banyan Golf Club, Hua Hin

Set up in a former pineapple plantation along with strategically established bunkers, the Banyan Golf Club is a delightful golf course which forms the core of any Hua Hin golf holiday. This golf club is amazing, having a layout consisting of elevation changes on a hilly landscape, ponds and streams on many holes and slopes which are anything but straightforward.

With 8 holes, par 72 and an area of 7361 yards, this golf course is a great option. All in all, you get a thrilling and very fulfilling experience.The only major challenge on this course is negotiating the greens. If you are in Hua Hin, it would be truly unjust to miss visiting the Banyan Golf Club and the experience of watching the mesmerizing sunset among the hills.

Black Mountain Golf Club, Hua Hin

Black Mountain Golf Club is one of the most high profile golf courses in Thailand and has been a host of various prestigious events such as the Royal Trophy, the Thailand Classic, thus attracting some of the biggest names in golf. The golf course is immaculate in every aspect and has a beautiful view. It has a length of 7343 yards and the fees is somewhere around 2600 baht.

Despite being highly manicured, it still has an extremely natural feel as many of the original trees have been retained along with some additional plantations. The natural streams have been very cleverly incorporated in the course’s design and the constant tinkering makes it better than before.

At present the golf course has nine holes and they are aiming to build the best nine holes in Thailand. A great golf course with the best caddies, superb service and a beautiful clubhouse, providing all the facilities, the Black Mountain Golf Club is a must visit.

Siam Country Club, Pattaya

One of the most picturesque courses in Thailand, this 27-hole layout course is a beautiful widespread golf course having an area of 7500 yards, making it one of the longest golf courses in Thailand. This golf course is made on the site of a former pineapple plantation and has a hilly landscape along with some great views, delivering an exhilarating track.

It is one of the most challenging courses as well as there are plenty of elevation changes especially on some of the par-3s which makes the club selection tough. Another challenge on this course is the shape of blind tee shots, undulating fairways, huge bunkers and fast greens that are quite hard to read.

n front of the club house, you see three holes which are – the 4th and 9th from the pineapple course and the 7th one from the tapioca course. Then there is the third nine which is called the sugarcane course and is probably the best of all including a par 5 with a minimum of 28 bunkers.

Chiangmai Highlands Golf Club

Chiang Mai Highlands is the best golf course among all the courses there are in Chiang Mai. This golf club designed by Lee Schmidt of Schmidt-Curley Design is located in the northern Thai countryside and has an amazing location being encircled by mountains. This golf course has been the winner of a lot of host awards over the years.

It is an 18 hole world class championship golf course with gorgeous scenery, fresh air and an incredible undulating topography of the Chiang Mai foothills. It uses the features of the naturally challenging landscape rather than manufacturing elevations and contours.