Another pleasant surprise for those of you looking for a course with challenge, variety and rolling terrain is the very scenic Narai Hill Golf Resort located around 140 km north of Bangkok. It is a little long for a one day drive but they do have rooms and villas at a golf resort where you can overnight and make it two days of golf and have loads of fun overnight.
The course was designed by Major Veeryot Pethbuasak and opened in 2006. Although the Paspalum fairways are still a bit thin, especially with the recent dry season, it has a very nice design with plenty of doglegs, bunkers, uphill and downhill holes. Khun Veeryot also designed Suwan Country Club and Phokeethra Country Club in Cambodia, both also excellent courses. Distances on this course are well established at 7357 from the black tees, 6825 from the blue tees and 6378 from the white tees. Thus all golfers can select a set of tees which will present them with a good challenge.
Fairways are generous and often gently sloping so Thai golfers should listen to their caddies and play to the appropriate side of the fairway in order to take full advantage of the terrain. An interesting feature of the designer on this course is that many fairways have a tree right in the middle but players should be able to hit around or over the trees with little problem. It actually functions as a directional target.
What will really challenge golfers here are the very sloping Tifdwarf greens which have some of the toughest breaks to read (grain, not the slope) and will leave you questioning your caddie, but usually she will be correct. They are a bit firm but will hold shots. Sand is good but a bit inconsistent in firmness from hole to hole. The course sets up pretty well so that first timers will not be struggling with their approach shots and wondering where the pin is on the green. The exception is hole #18, an uphill par 4 with the approach shot over a ravine that still has trees in it. So, early in your round as you walk past the 18th green, take note of the slope and pin position, you will be glad you did!
Another interesting hole is #5, a 558 yard par 5 that doglegs around a lake. Note the layout on the scorecard! The lay up area is very narrow with water on the right and jungle over a knoll on the left so in essence golfers are provoked into going for it in 2………which is doable as long as you do not let your shot leak right into the lake. There is a bailout area left of the green so the hole is not overly penal.
The clubhouse facilities are excellent with scenic views not only from the restaurant, but also from the locker room, a first in Thailand! In fact one can see for miles around throughout the course which is a real contract (no pun intended) to Bangkok itself. The caddies are all well trained which is especially impressive considering that this is a relatively new course.
This is a must play new Bangkok golf course and in time will get even better. Give Narai Hill a try and you will be in for a pleasant surprise!
Mark
Are you sure about the Paspalum fairways ?
I was always under the impression this grass was too coarse for fairways , but fine for hard wearing areas like tees etc.
Posted by: Bangkok Jock | April 21, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Yes I am sure. Narail Hill, Suwan, Lam Luk Ka, Thai CC, Mission Hills, Red Mountain, Siam CC old and Siam CC Plantation, Pleasant Valley, Muang Kaew, Best Ocean, and Alpine all have Paspalum fairways now.
This is the grass nowadays that is being used on all new golf courses and it works great. The grass is salt resistant, which makes weed eradication a simple task of putting salt on the infected areas. the weeds die and the grass is unaffected.
By the way, do you want to get out and play sometime? Have you played in Bangkok recently?
Posted by: Mark Siegel | April 22, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Can you tell me how much for a play and stay package is. I have a group that comes to Thailand each year and we are looking for a new Resort to play. I stayed in the resort in March but did not have the time to play it. The course looked great and the rooms were large with all the amenities. I look forward to playing it in October.
Posted by: Derek Gardner | June 23, 2008 at 03:47 PM
The course does have many good points, however, I feel that the behavior of the office staff, management and marshal by far outweigh everything else.
I called the course to confirm 3 rooms for a Tuesday night and all day sports day play on Wednesday for 7 people. The rate being a very reasonable 1500B not including caddy fee. The staff called me the day prior to arrival to confirm my booking and package.
I arrived payed my 1500B and went to my room. I wanted to check on a couple of specifics about tomorrows play in the office. During the course of the conversation I found that my all day sports day package wasn't going to be honored. After boring of discussing the reasoning behind not honoring the original package I went to sleep.
In the morning I went to pay my caddy fee and the staff said I could not pay yet. O.K. I proceeded to the practice green. Meanwhile all of my friends paid their fee and went to the first green and were waiting on me. So, I tried to pay again, and they said I could not, no explanation was offered. Instead of making my friends wait, I teed off with them. 10 minutes later the marshal came out to meet our group and to yell at not only the caddies but myself! YES! The marshal, whom I had never met, yelled at me! He said that I didn't pay the full room rate! I needed to pay an extra 500B + caddy fee?
Being already into the round I didn't want to stop and argue, so I paid the extra money.
On return to the clubhouse after the round, I went to seek out the manager. The manager wasn't there but some board members or people with apparent power over the operations were there. After explaining my case, all 5 people agreed what happened was a mistake. That it shouldn't have happened and that they were sorry. They said they could not reimburse the 500B extra that I had paid in the morning, but they would let me play an extra 9 holes for free.
By this point in time I had had enough and left, never to return!
Posted by: anubanbri | December 10, 2008 at 07:48 PM
I played this course today January 16 2012 and the fairways are not thin anywhere (my ball was anyway). The course is excellent and beautiful. I agree the greens are very hard to read and some holes being above the hole is dead. The course is not that difficult as I only lost one ball in 27 holes (and I am a very average golfer).
The only real downsides are, it is kinda out of the way unless you are staying at the resort and it was full of very slow playing Koreans. My friend and I arrived just after sunrise but several groups of them still got out in front of us.
Posted by: Joseph Murphy | January 16, 2012 at 10:34 PM
Mark, I'm trying it on the course tomorrow. I would just like to say you've improved my game loads already. I just struggle with a slice off the tee and some irons and also getting my irons well up in the air but much improved . Thanks to you I hit the 18th green at Thai CC in regulation which is a 20ft wide green guarded with 6 bunkers ! Thank You!
Posted by: Fergal | June 20, 2012 at 10:37 AM