Chiang Rai Golf Break

Golfers living in Thailand will tell you that Santiburi in Chiang Mai is one of their favorite golf courses in Thailand, and this is no small compliment! Santiburi Country Club was the first Chiang Rai golf course. The Chiang Rai Robert Trent Jones Jr designed Santiburi Country Club covers vast fields with excellent placement of holes and an abundance of water hazards and bunkers. The golf course is widely regarded as one of the best conceived and maintained golf courses in Asia.

Set into the contours of a valley, Santiburi offers a landscaped golf course that winds beneath a canopy of magnificent shade trees. The layout crosses lakes and streams and lush green foothills, and the mountains of Chiang Rai. The golf course is championship caliber, yet it is playable and enjoyable for golfers on every skill level.

Santiburi Chiang Rai Country Club features great holes with undulating fairways and fast greens. Four different tees appeal to every level of golfer, and eleven long par-4's make Santiburi particularly challenging for better golfers. Most holes have rolling greens guarded by countless sand and grass bunkers, trees, and substantial water hazards. There are varied options for longer holes, including conservative approaches for the novice and challenging routes over danger for the more experienced golfers.

As the course weaves its way around natural rolling hills and lakes, the first nine plays up and downhill while the back nine holes sweep through steep valleys and a chain of 3 lakes.

The Santiburi fairways have a wide range of sloping lies, are long, and are lined with natural hazards. At holes 2, 3, and 4, you have to play alongside a large lake that runs the holes' length. Bunkers protect most greens, and there are several dogleg holes. The par-5 finishing hole is particularly impressive as water protects the left side from the tee and again on the right side of the fairway on the approach shot.

The Santiburi Chiang Rai course is kept in excellent condition year-round, as the Singha Beer family owners continue to invest in good maintenance practices. If coming to Thailand, like to golf, and part of the time will be in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai, then every golfer should make time to play this course.

The beautiful and fully functional clubhouse dominates the highest point of the club area. It is first-class in every way, including clean locker rooms, a well-stocked pro shop, and a lovely restaurant serving a range of local and international dishes, and of course, cold Singha beer!

Set in the Wiang Chai Hills Waterford Valley Golf Course is 40 minutes from the city of Chiang Rai in one of Thailand’s most attractive and most cooling areas. The Waterford golf course is mostly flat as it is built upon a plateau, surrounded by lush valleys and mountains. The beautiful mountains of the North provide a pleasant distraction to a day on the fairways, which trees, shrubs, and bushes surround themselves and make this par 72 layout one of the most scenic in Thailand.

Designed in 1994 by Rather International, the natural beauty, incredible vistas & views, and refreshing climate makes Waterford Valley an excellent choice for a day of golf in Chiang Rai. Waterford Valley is a good, though at times hilly course. Three holes on each side have severe elevation changes, making correct club selection critical. The flatter holes are relatively straightforward, with wide fairways.

The 9th, a 390-yard par 4, is particularly challenging. The tee box is set back off to the side corner of a hill with the fairway playing a dog-leg left. A straight hit with a driver will run out of fairway and into water; a well-controlled draw around the hill to a landing area is the best bet or else a shorter 3-wood is a safer play. The approach is over a steep, water-filled ravine to a raised green sloping severely from back to front, with bunkers left and right. Avoid landing above the hole or face a downhill putt.

The 10th, a 505-yard par 5, requires an exacting drive over water to the fairway below. Trees right and left flank a narrow fairway guarded by a substantial bunker right and out of bounds all along left. It’s quite severely downhill so a good tee shot will run a long way down the fairway, setting up for a fairway wood onto the green in two.

The 18th, a 368-yard par 4, is a decent finishing with elevation change and birdie opportunity.  A 3-wood off the tee sets up nice for hitting it close to the uphill green. Overall Waterford is a fun Chiang Rai golf course with predominantly open parkland holes and a few decidedly tricky ones mixed in as well.

Apres golf players have a good view of the surroundings and suburbs of Chiang Rai from the outdoor clubhouse. The food is basic Thai cuisine including a few spicy northern specialties with the usual beverages. There is also an onsite golf resort which consists of a 20 room golf lodge as well as 30 dormitory style rooms. Local Thais and large groups of visiting Asian golfers enjoy the lodge, whereas most other Chiang Rai golfers prefer to overnight at better lodging in or near Chiang Rai city center.

Happy City Golf Resort is sprawled over 1200 rai and located in the Northern Thailand foothills just outside Chiang Rai. The Korean owned Chiang Rai golf resort plays as the world’s only 29-hole golf course. Locally designed and built by Thai golf professionals, three 9-hole courses are named Lakeside, Mountain Breeze, and River. Additionally, two additional maintenance holes are switched in and out to allow for course improvements without disrupting play on any of the nines.