It is very rare these days that I get to play a new course in my own backyard. Therefore, when my golfing buddies suggested playing at Pattana Golf Resort in Pattaya, I jumped at the change with much excitement.

Pattana is a bit out of the way as getting to the course involved around a 1 hour drive from Pattaya or 2 hour ride from Bangkok. Either way the drive is pleasant enough as the road are good and there is little traffic along the way. Upon arrival I immediately saw the large club house, golf resort, and collection of golf villas. With this kind of infrastructure Pattana must be catering for long staying golfers and those looking for intensive stay and play packages.

That being said we were assigned the A&B Courses out of the 27 holes at Pattana. I am told that B and C are the better 2 courses and can at least attest to the fact that the B nine is indeed batter than the A nine.
The A Course starts out on the left side of the clubhouse and is characterized by allot of mounding and fairway moguls. I am not a big fan of this design trick, but nevertheless the out holes play reasonably good with many doglegs and even a Par-6 to make the Par-37 front nine play a quite long 3686 yards.

The 1st hole on Course B is a man made island fairway that plays to an elevated green, not exactly an easy way to start a round, but a clever design nevertheless. The rest of the B holes have a distinct parkland feeling with large Oil Palms lining most fairways and excellent framing from one hole to another. Greens are better manicured than the A Course and putts roll faster, especially downhill and down grain.

Overall Pattana Golf resort is a solid ‘B grade’ course and one of the better golf courses in the Pattaya area that still allow walking. This makes for a good value for money (for walkers anyway) and an overall pleasant golfing experience. I am sure anyone playing Pattana will have an enjoyable day out.

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