Now, in the late 1990’s, Phuket boasts no less than five excellent courses, including Thai Muang, the latest course to be opened, on the mainland just across the Sarasin Bridge to the island.

Thai Muang Beach Resort is my own personal favourite course, well worth the drive there, about forty minutes beyond the airport. It is one of the few beach-side championship standard courses in Thailand, running as it does along the Andaman Sea coast. It occupies an opulent site with mountains and low, forested hills on one side, and sea and sand on the other.

Thai Muang Beach Resort

The layout is generally flat but even so it is peppered with difficulties and poses many tough problems. It sports many of the features associated with it's renowned designer, Pete Dye Designs, including many bunker railway sleepers. The lush fairways on which your ball sits up waiting to be hit, wind along and around ponds, lagoons and creeks. There are hills, hollows, large angular mounds and many other hazards to cope with. No less than 12 holes feature water carries.

The final three holes represent as spectacular a finish as any course in the world, particularly if it is played as the sun sets over the Andaman Sea. The 16th, a 523 yard, dog leg par 5 with a lake edging right up to the green; the 17th, a 181 yard par 3 dubbed "The Lady" (possibly because of its capricious nature!); and the 18th, an awesome 468 yard par 4, running alongside the deserted white sandy beach.

From the back tees, Thai Muang provides a genuinely testing game for the pro. Happily, when played from further forward, it also presents the amateur golfer with a fair and not too intimidating challenge.

Hole #20 - Click for larger image.

Just down the road from Thai Muang, seemingly only a good three wood from the airport, lies Blue Canyon Country Club. From the outset, Blue Canyon’s developers set their sights high; it was to be not simply Thailand’s most prestigious country club and golf complex, but also the premier golf course in Asia. Today, some 8 years after its opening in late 1991, Blue Canyon is well on its way on both counts.

Blue Canyon Country Club

The Club occupies a peaceful and exotic location, formerly a tin mine set in rubber plantations among craggy hills. The Canyon Course  spreads over two wooded valleys which are linked by a central spur of higher ground and which filter down to a series of clear blue freshwater lakes. Fairways unfold over sloping, rolling land and are punctuated by various hazards in the form of narrow landing areas and well-guarded greens. Early holes run through avenues of towering trees and are relatively less difficult than the holes to come. The challenge of the back nine, on the other hand, is progressively more demanding. Certain holes are nothing less than spectacular. For those playing the forward tees, the climb to the back tee on the 10th hole gives the reward of stunning views over Phang-Na Bay – as well as a clearer view of this deceptively easy-looking short par 4, with its myriad bunkers protecting the hole.

The 390 yard par four 13^th, "The Canyon" hole, features a daunting carry across a beckoning canyon. The signature par three 14^th hole drops 194 yards from an elevated tee to a tiny island green. The 586 yards par five 15^th hole is a blind double dog leg, left then right, with two water carries.

Having negotiated these awesome holes, you come to the par 3 seventeenth, described by Fred Couples as "one of the best par 3’s anywhere in the world". It is easy to wreck your scorecard on this hole – yet, such is the beauty of golf that a 26 handicap chum of mine recently holed in one here during a Phuket Expats Golf Society outing!

The 9^th and the 18^th holes present wonderful finishing holes up to the luxurious club-house and "Golfer’s Lodge". The Blue Canyon Club also houses the Gary Player Golfing Academy.

Yet, if I were to be asked what really differentiates this course, I would say that it is the severity of many of the greens. When Golf Orient were involved in the production of the Blue Canyon course guide, Jon Morrow the resident pro and myself failed the test of simply staying on the green when putting from certain positions on certain holes, notably the 1^st, the 5^th, the 7^th, the 13^th, and the 18^th! It is one of the very few course guides that we have produced where green slopings are indicated in some detail!

A second 18 holes, the Lakes Course, is now open and promises to present an equally demanding challenge. The course site has basically the same make-up as the Canyon Course: a mix of rubber plantation and water filled canyons created by open-cast tin mining, but combined with more water hazards – water comes into play on 17 holes.  Gradual undulations make for a generally easy walking course. The 18 holes run continuously rather than two loops of 9. Only holes 17 and 18 flow consecutively in the same direction. The course has been designed by the same designers as the Canyon Course to cater for a broad range of golfers, with silver tees being added between red (ladies) and white (men’s) tees.  The 18th hole is probably the hole you will remember best – from the Championship tee there may not be a harder finishing hole anywhere in the world!

Lakes Course Hole #20 - Click for larger image.

Possibly the best all-round golf course on Phuket Island, in terms of representing enjoyable, not too intimidating golf, whilst in no way being a push-over, is the doyen of Phuket’s golf courses, the Phuket Country Club, the first major 18-hole golf course to be built on the island. It is conveniently located within easy reach of the main tourist areas of Patong Beach and Kata/Karon.

Phuket Country Club

This interesting layout, designed by well-known local Thai architect, Dr. Sukitti Klangvisai, is set in rolling foothills around a large lagoon. The mature and varied trees, plants and flowers around the course lend it an especial beauty. It is distinguished by having six holes winding through undulating hills, another six on the level, while the remainder pass through landscaped forest. The holes themselves vary in their degree of challenge.

As a general rule the tees are elevated and lead to gently rising and falling fairways. Some holes, however, have numerous bunkers or taxing water carries, and others incorporate tricky doglegs or blind greens. Included in these are the sharply dog-legged 493 yards par five 3^rd hole, where you need to drive high over the trees skirting the corner in order to avoid a dangerous second shot; the 143 yard island green par three 17^th hole, where accuracy is everything; the taxing 563 yards long par five 18^th hole, with a dog leg, a carry over water and a long shot onto a tricky steeply sloping green.

A short drive on the par four 7^th hole will leave you with a blind shot to a difficult three tiered green. It was as we were leaving this hole recently and walking to the next tee that we spotted our friend in the next flight hitting a blind shot to the edge of the green. My playing companions persuaded me to join in playing a trick on our friend, known to be very generous in the club-house whenever scoring a birdie, by picking up his ball and then jumping up and down and shouting with excitement that it had gone in the hole for a stupendous eagle! When he reached the green and heard that his ball was in the hole, our friend said: "Great – that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to make a 6 on this hole"!

Phuket Country Club - Hole #10 Layout - Click for larger image.

Possibly the best known hole in Phuket is the 557 yard par five 10th hole. This runs around the large lagoon and you have to hit over water at least twice. The brave big hitter can drive to a narrow, 15 or so yards wide area in front of the green, a carry of some 225 yards over water. Thus this 10th hole is one of the few par five holes where you can be on or close in one!

Nine new holes have recently been opened on the other side of the road from the Country Club, the "Country Course". Perhaps because the 10^th hole on the "Old Course" excited such comment, Dr. Sukitti the designer has made many of the new 9 holes the same! Every wayward shot is penalized either landing in water or out of bounds. With five tee-off boxes at each hole, you have the choice of making it less of an ordeal. The distinct feature is water which comes into play 90% of the time. Bring plenty of golf balls when you try this course!

At the new "Country Course" location, there is a driving range, a superb club-house with an excellent restaurant, and many other facilities. This complements well the comfortable, recently extended club-house at the "Old Course" which serves very good Thai food.

Also presenting good, holiday golf is the Banyan Tree Club on the Laguna Resort. It is most convenient to residents in the five top class hotels on the Resort, who receive a special discount, but is only 25 minutes drive from Patong Beach.

Banyan Tree Golf Club Click for larger image.

This is a course designed by Messrs. Max Wexler and David Abel to high standards, but geared to give pleasure rather than pain. Low handicappers will find that it provides plenty of challenge to test their skills but higher handicappers need not feel overawed. The course is set on a valley floor overlooked by low wooded hills. The well-landscaped layout is dotted with clumps of palms and graceful casuarina trees. The fairways flow nicely, the bunkers are moulded and the greens are generally large and welcoming – albeit, in some need of attention to the couch type grass which has got into them.

The first half of the course is carved out of hills and its fairways meander through a once flourishing coconut plantation. The second half is flatter but more difficult. As with Thai Muang, the finishing 4 holes are the most attractive yet most challenging: the 421 yard par four 15^th, where you hit your second shot into a green seemingly in the shadow of the low hills behind the hole; the 152 yard par 3 16^th with its long green guarded by strategically placed bunkers; the monster 612 yard par five 17^th, requiring you to play at least twice over or around water; and the fine 527 yards par 5 18^th hole running in front of the Allamanda Resort, where three well struck shots will land you in sight of a finishing birdie.

9th Hole at the Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree complex comprises the Banyan Tree Hotel & Spa, a haven of peace and security, and the Banyan Tree Golf Club, where the practice facilities are extensive and include a driving range, putting green and chipping areas. A team of golf professionals is also on hand to give advice, provide private tuition, or organise group clinics.

The Crystal Lake

The Crystal Lake’s 48 acres of water and it’s smaller sister lake’s 12 acres give off refreshing cool breezes. This, together with the fact that the Loch Palm course is relatively short and is one of only two courses in Phuket with golf carts (Thai Muang being the other), makes it very pleasant and quick to play – if only to promptly arrive at the restful 19th hole overlooking the lake where ice cold beers accompany tasty Thai food. Overlooking the 1st hole. No matter what your standard of golf, I am confident that you will enjoy the delights of all Phuket’s golf courses -- and that you will return time after time.